The ARKS
by HolyJunkie
Summary: re-uploaded into multiple chapters for your convenience Philip Jacobson, a paintball player with no expectations in life, gets caught in an underground war between the Cluster and humanity, serving as a Tactician for a small group of renegades...
1. Chapter 1

-----1

Philip entered the school like he always did every weekday. It was a second home to him, one he automatically went to, unless he felt under the weather or just wanted to go elsewhere for a change. However, the only thing that mattered was the fact that he was there; and nowhere else. The dark tan walls were familiar to the 17-year-old boy. He's been going to the school for a year already, and another two months on top of that. The school never changed, save for the occasional damage from laser beams, missiles, or generally being smashed up by physical force.

That robot girl definitely made up for the blandness of the entire school. As time went, it just became another "planned show", in which everyone knew the result: The robot girl... Wakeman... would win. If not, some miracle by her human friend or friends would still make up for it; then the day after, the Wakeman girl would return all fixed up and acting as if it never happened.

Come to think of it, there has yet to be some form of destruction for the past three days. The recently replaced drywall nearby the southern bathroom was already painted over and clean as a whistle. No burn marks anywhere.

It was... strange, Philip thought. No alien attacks to be thwarted by the robot girl. He suspected everyone else started to think the same. This was definitely something to ask about.

He had fifteen minutes before the warning bell, easily enough time to jog to the outskirts and back again and still have time to take a leak, a drink of water, and a slow trip to the lockers. He made his way to the office of Vice Principal Rizinski.

Another thing Philip found odd was the lack of the Big Cheese; the real principal. He's never shown his face for as long as he or the 12th-graders could remember. He would be better off asking Radzinski, as the ones one grade superior would just use that as a reason to pointlessly beat the crap out of him any time they wanted. At least he wasn't a tenth-grader, whom the "twelvers" target more, apparently. Especially that Don bastard...

"Whatever..." Philip thought as he knocked on the warped glass plate that took up a third of the overall door to the principal's office.

"Who is it?" the gruff, authoritative voice boomed through the door.

"It's Philip Jacobson. Can I enter?" the boy asked.

"What did you do this time?" the Vice-principal asked through the door.

"I just wanted to ask something." Philip replied.

"If it's about the recent... lack of events, your guess is as good as mine. Go away." the semi-big cheese replied.

Philip hummed as he walked off. His locker was nearby, making preparation for the day relatively quick. He then made his way to his class.

The robot girl passed by in the opposite direction Philip was going, accompanied by his orange-red-haired friend. Philip never learned their names, just the last name of the robot, as she was called down to the office quite a number of times. The two of them didn't seem to have the same thoughts as Philip did. Then again, who would ever notice a normal person.

That's exactly what he was: just a normal student who occasionally played paintball with a Facebook group he found that comprised of a few inhabitants of Tremorton. He wasn't even the best. Hell, none of his group was. They just played paintball, ended up getting owned by another team from another town, and they end up going to Mezmer's like every other teenager. They enjoyed the thrill of paintball; the so-called "mark or be marked" theme behind the lesser-known sport.

The group itself was comprised of eight members, just enough for an official team with substitutes. Philip was not the leader, nor could he be leader material. The leader was a girl only a month older than Philip by the name of Sally. She was better than the rest of the team, which ultimately comprised of three girls and five guys. All of them were around the same age group, between sixteen and eighteen.

Paintball was the only thing Philip had as a form of escapism. It always felt good to be doing something you enjoy with a bunch of your friends, even if it's just talking. At school, it was all repetition, the unsurprising stuff, things that happen without fail... Except for right now...

Right now, there was no chaos or mayhem caused by robotic space-travelers whom Philip learned to be simply called "The Cluster", a vast society comprised of robots gone rampant against their ultimately-organic creators. They could have asked for a simple apology, but instead, they try to invade the Earth just to take the human race as slaves. Philip guessed he should be thankful for the robot girl's existence, despite the danger her presence still brings to the school.

Except the school was still in one piece, fully repainted, fully repaired, with a boiler equipped with a device designed to cool the boiler safely if it were to overheat; hot and painful memories from the first day she arrived.

The Krust Cousins were the ultimate cause. Jealousy because of the fact that the robot girl was the center of attention. Endangering the whole school just out of an ego trip. It's a wonder why they were not expelled at all...

Philip entered his first classroom. It was quiet, like usual. It always is; Art class always is quiet. Philip himself was no artist, but he liked the subject and the quietness that came with it. Always fascinated by the paintings by greats long passed. Those who never got rich until they died, in which their paintings sold for fortunes. The unfortunate part about being an artist: The real worth of one's great, unique efforts are realized when one passes on, unable to reap the benefits. It was a job only the least greedy could pull off and survive.

The teacher was asleep, which came as no surprise. Everyone knew that without his daily cup of coffee, the teacher was a sack of potatoes comprised of a fleshy carcass and specially-shaped organs that are inedible by moral standards. There was a mug, but it was empty and dry, with a coffee stain resulting from yesterday and the day before that. Usually he goes to get his coffee at lunch. After that, he's as normal as a teacher could get.

What was really a little more than an hour seemed like more... lots more. Finally, the bell rang. The teacher sloppily moved his arms over his ears, complaining about crazy teenage neighbors. Typical, since he lived in a neighborhood that was comprised of kids planning to get into heavy metal bands. Philip knew; he once passed by the neighborhood to meet up with two of his paintball friends, and almost every garage door was open, revealing huge amps, guitars, bass, and colossal drum sets. Bass pedals littered the ground within the garage as well. The neighborhood was always circulating noise throughout the area of town. Philip saw his teacher while passing by, watering his garden while wearing a pair of earmuffs and sipping on coffee.

Philip exited the room along with the silent crowd, into the sea of noisy and smelly human hormone-boilers. He couldn't wait for the end of school, as today was going to be a paintball day, where he and his team make their way to the field on the outskirts of Tremorton, to the specially-made field. Paintball, the ultimate form of escapism, next to video games. This time, Philip hoped that his team would at least win a game. They've been on a losing streak for two weeks already.

What they needed was a strategy. All they did right now was just go their own way, and mark any contact they see. This time, they needed a plan. Philip knew that, and he hoped the rest did. If they didn't. Philip would have to speak up.

The next class was over already, as Philip was thinking over what kind of strategies there were. Fortunately, the class at the time was simply a work day, with no new lessons. Lunch was already upon the school. A time of general chaos originating in what was determined by the English language makers as the "Cafeteria". It was a gathering place for those who were hungry- whether it be for actual food, attention, or socializing, the place had it all. Philip was once again part of the anonymous crew, just trying to get through the day with a head remaining on their necks.

The rest of the day seemed to pass by normally. Once again, no attacks by aliens or the Cluster, or anything. Not even a crazed gunman blasting through the doors, blazing a machine gun at innocent civilians, trying to get a spot on a news channel when he's detained and/or removed from existence, trying to pass on a message that every other human has, but is not stupid enough to be so extreme to try to dish it out. It was peaceful... boring... Nothing out of the ordinary, except the white-and-blue-"skinned" android, who was comparatively normal, compared to the events that stopped happening.

Classes afterward were work days much like the class before lunch. Upon the final bell, Philip was out of the door. If he didn't hurry, he would be late for the meet-up with the others at Mezmer's. He rushed out of the plain, brown doors and fished his way through the crowd of fellow students. Mezmer's was within sight, along with the seven people with backpacks. Philip never got his own marker. His parents never knew he played paintball. All he had was his current apparel.

"Phil, we almost left without you." one of the other guys said when Philip was within speaking range.

"Math teacher wouldn't shut up about current events. Just so you know, Travis," Philip replied.

Travis shrugged as he stood straight from leaning on the wall. "Well, we ready to go?" He asked, turning toward one of the girls, whom Philip knew as Sally: the leader.

"Yeah. We all know the drill, just do your best," the girl replied.

Philip was about to suggest a strategy, but everyone was already making their way toward the outskirts. Philip had to jog to catch up. A few minutes passed, and they were soon at the lobby to the paintball arena. The tired, bored cashier soullessly waved to the group, recognizing them easily, since they went to the arena a lot. Philip waved back and grabbed an unloaded paintball marker off of a nearby shelf. Everyone else just reached into their backpacks and produced their own paintball markers. Some were standard, but some were even custom-built to resemble ordinary firearms, such as Travis, who's marker easily resembled an M16 when not loaded with the gravity-fed paintball clip.

Soon, another team entered. Philip could easily tell that they were more experienced, as they wore actual camouflage suits and had their equipment strapped on like real soldiers.

Maybe the strategies won't help them after all, Philip thought as he got a protective paintball mask on. His black hoody and dark gray cargo pants complementing the overall look.

It was all going to be a normal day at the paintball arena. At least, it should've been. Philip should have given the plan to everyone once they were out in the field, when the enemy team could not hear them or see them. He should have done some practice shots on the tree just twenty meters from the door that they just exited. They should have just had a normal day.

Today just wasn't their day.

Before Philip knew it, Armageddon smashed down into the paintball arena, wiping out whatever tree or form of cover that once existed seconds before. Before Philip knew it, utter chaos ensued. He was the only one out of his group that didn't react quick enough to take cover, wait for the Robot Girl to come and save the day.

Today, however, Philip finally found out what it was like to black out. He never lost consciousness before, and had heard stories about the relaxed, dead, but not quite dead feeling. He never got into many sports except for paintball, and even then, he was tough enough to not get knocked down that easily by little balls of coloured semi-fluid.


	2. Chapter 2

-----2

Was he dead? No... If he was dead, he would not still feel his mind, which was throbbing in sheer agony. Philip willed his eyed to open, but the pain was just too much.

"Ah, finally awake, scum?" A voice blurted out, ringing in his already-ringing ears. Philip groaned in reply, followed by a cough. There was some kind of medicine in his mouth. Some other force forces Philip to swallow the bitter taste.

Another voice came on. It was soft and gentle, the exact opposite of the first voice. The second voice was pretty easy to identify as a nurse trained to help people calm down before some operation of some kind.

"Aspirin applied. Estimated time for effect: two minutes. Painkillers administered to right femur region. bandaging applied to left shoulder. Please keep still."

"He won't be going anywhere. Let me know when I can have his full attention."

"Affirmative, Captain,"

Philip heard footsteps, then a hydraulic-powered door opening and closing.

"Ugh... What's happening?" Philip wheezed, trying to see if there was still someone who was still there.

"Please remain calm. Wait until the pain ceases."

Philip did. Two minutes later, his eyes could open normally. He seemed to be in a hospital of some sort. Where exactly, he didn't know.

"Status: Nominal. Please wait while I hail the Captain," said the voice again. As it moved toward the door, Philip could see it perfectly.

Who... or what it was, it as definitely not human. Not even organic. It was a robot.

A robot dressed as a nurse. Definitely not appealing to someone who was not a technophile. To Philip, he suddenly wished it was a human... The reason he wished the nurse was a human was that the so-called "captain" that entered was also a robot.

"Ah, the meat-bag has finally awaken," it said in the evil-ridden voice.

"How long has it been?" Philip was about to ask, but then he was back-hand slapped by the Captain.

"You're now officially property of the Cluster. Either you smarten up and don't ask questions or we're going to do worse than you've ever imagined."

Philip was intimidated easily. The Cluster? Was he at their home world? or was this just a base? No, it couldn't be just a base. Otherwise that Jenny Wakeman would have already busted it to ribbons. Speaking of whom, where the hell was she? Where were Philip's friends?

Before he could think further on the matter, he was released from the hospital bed. He then managed to get a real good look around. It was nearing sunset, according to the window to his left. The sky was orange-red, turning the buildings outside into dark silhouettes. It was generally a hospital room with a bed used mainly for robotic maintenance. The fact that there was no cushioning suddenly came to Philip, and his whole body started to noticeably cramp; mainly the areas where he was strapped down to the table in the first place.

The Captain grabbed Philip by his good shoulder and threw him toward the door.

"Careful. Repeated abuse will result in fatal trauma." the nurse said.

The Captain seemed disappointed at the report, but seemed to understand for reasons unknown "Very well, we'll need this one alive anyways. Hurry and move it, flesh-sack."

The painkillers applied to Philip's leg seemed to be minimal, but at least the pain itself when he walked was not as severe as it could have been. The Captain occasionally prodded Phillip in places where it hurt like the dickens, telling him to hurry up or pick up the pace afterward.

The walk was long and painful. Even the painkillers started to wear off by the time they finally arrived somewhere. Before Philip could stop and look around, the Captain threw Philip through an open door and slammed it shut.

"New arrival..." a weak, human-sounding voice echoed through the dark room. Philip got up and leaned back into a wall. The room was dark, but it was possible to see what was within the room.

There were other humans. None that Philip could recognize. Some looked like they were here for a long time. A few wore some kind of camouflage outfit. Then Philip realized: they were some of the other Paintball team.

"Do any of you know what happened?" Philip asked one of the camo-donned humans.

"You must be from the Paintball Arena," the closest one said.

"Yeah," Philip replied.

"We don't know what happened. We saw the first laser punch down a few meters ahead of us, and when we looked up, we saw a few ships fly down and bombard the place. I saw some insect-like robots kidnap some of our own. I blacked out, and I guess I ended up here. Looks like you got beaten up really bad. You got blood all over your leg and shoulder."

"Huh, Never noticed, I guess that robot was prodding me so much I didn't notice..."

"Wait, you can't even feel it? Do you realize how much there is on you?"

"How much?"

"I'm surprised you're not dead. Your entire leg and half your torso is covered in it.

Philip examined himself, and the guy was right. Philip was missing his shirt and hoody, leaving his sweatpants. His right leg and left torso area were covered in blood. In the sources of both, there was heavy bandaging, which was thick enough that there were no visible stains underneath. His whole left arm was covered in bandages for some reason.

"So... What's going to happen now?" Philip asked.

"What else? We're just going to be slaves to these barbaric robots..." said a war veteran with a chin that never met a razor in years. The coat he wore was torn, but still donned a set of dented campaign medals.

"What? Slaves?" Philip couldn't believe it. He heard the stories, but he never actually thought they were this hell-bent on using the humans for their own greedy ways; especially ones that never held a grudge against them all his life.

"That's right. We're going to be their power source for making damned ice cream. It's practically all they eat, and they use us to power the machines used to make the ice cream. They also make us mine materials for use in the hospitals or whatever company that sells robotic bits and pieces to their comrades."

"What is it that we did anyway that made them do this?" Philip asked.

"Who the hell knows? My guess is a grudge since World War R," the War vet replied. He then scooted his way toward Philip and the paintball opponent. "Name's Hender," he said, extending a still strong-looking hand.

"Philip," he replied, hesitating, but gripping the hand. Despite the terrible situation, it felt warm.

"Johann," the paintball guy replied, then pointing to the other two camo-donned humans. "That's Pete and that's Gerald." he said, pointing to one wearing glasses and then to one with bandaging over his right eye.

"Is there anyone else?" Philip inquired.

"They're all at the mine or one of the many shops. They were going to bring me back to the slave quarters, but they stopped off to pick up you guys. I guess you guys should be thankful; not starting the hour you arrive," Hender replied.

The dark room started to rumble. It then turned out that they were in a truck of some kind. Philip stood up and looked out the tiny window still present in the door.

Cluster Prime looked to be a beautiful place; what with the skyscrapers made entirely out of metal and tough, shatter-proof glass. Mechanized trees and wildlife roamed every sidewalk and park that was passed. It seemed all peaceful, which added to its loveliness. It didn't look that good when assorted robots passing by gave the truck a dirty look. No, it wasn't the truck, it was toward the humans inside it. They could tell if there were humans inside the truck, easily.

Soon, they passed a very high, steel-plated wall. Gates shutting after the truck was through. The incredible sight of the city vanished behind the gates.

It was official: Philip is now a slave to these bolt-bag bastards...

After another minute of random movement throughout the isolating stronghold walls, the vehicle stopped. All of the prisoners felt a slight jolt, much like on en elevator when it starts to go down. Except this time it jolted downwards for a meter, sending everyone up in the air. Except for Hender, who knew when to take a good hold on the floor, and was otherwise unharmed.

"You'll get used to it..." Hender muttered, Johann, Pete and Gerald all sat up again and nursed their aching rear ends. Philip fell on his non-bandaged arm, but it didn't break.

The door on the far end swung open, filling the entire vehicle interior with dull, orange light. All of them (save for Philip) had to cover their eyes, as they've (save for Philip) been in darkness for quite a while. At the door stood another insect robot. It looked different from the Captain Philip saw earlier, but it seemed to be the same rank.

"Up and at 'em, scum!" it bellowed. Hender got up immediately, since he seemed to be used to the whole ordeal. The others soon got the hint and got up as well. They were all in a line. Pete and Gerald were behind Hender, with Philip and Johann behind them. The other captain pointed towards the left turn out of the vehicle door. They all obeyed and moved at a stable pace out and to their left. The captain prodded Johann into Philip, it haltered them a bit, but they didn't lose their pace altogether, lest they give the bug a "legitimate" reason to beat them with his strange-looking nightstick that he kept strapped on his thigh.

Hender was let off early in his own cell, which was relatively empty, save for a few cots and a concealed area where a toilet most likely was. Gerald and Johann were let off next, in a cell that contained generally the same thing, except one extra cot. There were two sleeping humans in that cell.

Philip was shoved in the one adjacent from the one where Johann and Gerald were sent in, After the door closed, Philip wouldn't be able to find out where Pete would end up.

There was literally no one in the cell, and Philip needed to take a leak. He moved quickly to the concealed area and relieved himself from the contents of his large intestines. Within a minute, there was no strain on Philip's body whatsoever. He pulled up his pants and left the concealed area. Despite the fact that the toilet was just a hole in an appendage out of the farthest wall from the exit, it worked, and considering the events, that's what Philip cared about.

He sat down in the cot that looked the least used. After five minutes of sitting and looking at the cell, Philip was getting the feeling that the cell was completely vacant. All the beds looked the same: unused. Assuming that the cell had no other inhabitants save for Philip, why did the guard send Pete onward?

It was a question that lacked sense. The only reason would be to isolate Philip as a way to mentally and emotionally damage him... But why him of all people?

Philip scratched his head with his blood-stained, un-bandaged right hand. There was no feeling of pain, and it continued to feel warm ever since shaking Hender's hand back on the vehicle. There were cuts and bruises everywhere, but they looked like perfect skin compared to Philip's heavily-bandaged left leg. He knew by common sense that his leg would be fine, as a missing leg would make him a less efficient slave, especially considering what Hender told him what they'd all be doing for these robotic tyrants.

There were nine cots. Philip was sitting on one in the far right corner, trying to be as far away from the door as possible. He was afraid of the guard returning to give him a beating just for the laughs.

The guard never came into the door as he passed by another five minutes later. A small hatch slid open under a hydraulic system and a bowl of slop of some kind flew into the door. There wasn't even a spoon stuck in it, but upon close examination, it turns out there used to be a spoon in it, but was apparently lost on the way to the cell. Lack of responsibility or care resulted in the lack of utensil. Philip didn't care. It seemed like hours since an actual meal.

It tasted good, strangely enough. It turned out that it was well-cooked chicken with too much gravy. Philip never liked gravy, despite its decent taste. It was something one would eat, but not in a huge abundance of; like too much oyster sauce on a bowl of freshly-cooked noodles.

The chicken had no taste and there was no salt. All that kept it together was the huge amount of gravy. Philip knew he couldn't eat it all because of the strange attribute of gravy, and he also knew that if he decided to wait until he could eat it again without puking, it would be cold, bland, and all-in-all disgusting.

He ate as much as he could, and then decided to experiment how long it will be before the over-taste of gravy would vanish. He knew it would end in dissatisfaction, but he wanted to do it just to pass time. It was disturbingly boring while in the cell. Philip felt the small pond of gravy and found it to be colder than the dry blood on his pants. Philip stuck his finger in his mouth to test the gravy. Disgusting... he thought... He then wiped the saliva off of his shirt and dumped the rest of the crap into the toilet, watching the stuff sink slowly into the dark waters of who-knows-what.

He placed the bowl on a spot right at the door, where there were markings on the cold metal floor indicating that all food bowls should be there when finished with. Philip then sat on his cot and instantly fell asleep while sitting up.

He awoke lying down, apparently his muscles gave in and dropped his head on where the pillow would have been. The cots only consisted of a gray mattress on a metal frame dug into the wall. Whatever the metal was, it was durable. Even a large person could jump on it without it buckling even the slightest.

Even then, it just had that feel to it that indicated that it might break any second. It probably resulted in Philip's fears of falling, which ultimately contrasted into acrophobia. It was more his lack of trust for what he's standing on that happens to be high above good, solid ground.

He didn't know what time it was, but the sleep was good. He didn't know why he woke up until he heard the large metal door emitting a clanging sound across the room and back again.

"Are you awake, meat bag?" another robotic insect yelled into the cell. He was looking in the cell, and could see Philip get up, but he obviously wanted the human to answer anyways.

"Yes," Philip replied.

"Yes... what?" the robot guard rudely snapped back.

"Yes, I am awake," Philip said, trying not to sound as annoyed as possible, lest to avoid a beating.

"Your five hours of rest is over. Is that leg good?"

Philip completely forgot about his leg when he was brought to his cell. Upon thinking about it, the pain became noticeable. Philip tried to stand, but the remembrance made it ache from the fact that he interrupted its natural healing process.

"I guess not. Orders are orders, however, so I'll leave you in there. Otherwise I'd be having my way with you two minutes ago because you wouldn't wake up." the bug yelled before storming off to pester other human prisoners.

Philip felt guilty. Chances are, the guard was waking people up just to get them out of their cells and to bring them to where they went to work. He's the only one that literally can't function properly at the time being. Everyone else, however, could.

Philip tried to sleep again, but it wasn't as instant. Two minutes after he couldn't hear the rude guard's yelling and the footsteps of other guards escorting human slaves, sleep was easier to achieve. He didn't have any dreams.


	3. Chapter 3

-----3

He was once again rudely awoken, this time by a completely different, yet equally rude guard. It was as if all the robots were single-minded when it came to despising humanity in general. Definitely a trait that reminded Philip of this one friend he had... Karl was his name. Throughout Jr. High, Karl was verbally abused by every kid in the school, except for Philip, who knew Karl since pre-school. Karl vowed to make himself a respectable person in the future, to make the douche bags that insulted him eat their own words.

However, he was dead before his name could be spread in High School. During the summer, utter chaos ensued when a giant amphibious monstrosity attacked Tremorton. The Wakeman robot came in to save the day, but at the time, no one knew who she was. This was before she fully revealed herself to the public. The fight sent the monster into a traffic intersection. Karl was on a bicycle on a paper run. The monster flew into the intersection, which caused a driver to turn his car right into Karl's bike. The car didn't stop as it pushed the young teenager right into a house wall. Both his legs were broken and he was impaled by one of his own bike handles. Philip saw it all, as he was mowing the lawn two houses back. He ditched the lawn mower to harmlessly roll into a fence, not moving afterward. Philip hurdled over fences to get to Karl, but it was too late. It didn't take a genius to find out that he died.

Since then, after seeing her in high school, he didn't care what happened to her. She didn't even attend the funeral. Only he, along with Karl's relatively large family attended. It didn't rain throughout, but considering the large amount of tears, the rain was not needed.

His death haunted Philip, but allowed him to get used to the sight of blood. The way he was right now, he was lucky to be alive, as they were injuries almost equal to what Karl got hit with.

The guard knocked on the door again. He also asked how Philip's leg felt. When Philip tested it, it didn't hurt that much; only as much as a sprained ankle. Upon reporting the sensation, the guard opened the door and harshly beckoned Philip to follow, which he did without question. The last thing he wanted were more bruises.

As he passed the cells, he noticed that there were no one in the cells. They only stopped at the cell Philip recognized as Hender's. The bearded war veteran was already at the door before it was opened, and he walked beside Philip as they moved with the guard.

Philip could tell that Hender wanted to talk, but he couldn't. Obviously he knew what would happen if conversation broke out before the vehicle.

However, they passed by the garage. The vehicle was in there, and Philip got a good look at it. It was also a robot, and it seemed to be sleeping. Its two arms and legs were all folded in a way that allowed it to be parked with high stability.

Further down the hallway, the guard shoved the two humans into an elevator and closed the door. Philip noticed that the buttons were on the outside of the elevator. Almost immediately, the elevator jerked downward, almost as harshly as the robotic vehicle when Philip first arrived.

"Mining duty today..." Hender muttered, "Last time I was at an ice cream shop... How are you holding out?"

"What?" Philip didn't catch the question. He didn't understand what Hender was muttering about and thus didn't listen after "Mining duty".

"I said How are you holding out?" Hender said, not muttering this time.

"Good," Philip replied.

"That leg any good?"

"It's like a sprained ankle now when I walk on it."

"You got some fast healing, I would've expected you to be out of commission for a day more."

"Uh... thanks."

"Need to know anything about the mining duty?" Hender asked.

"Yes, I never went into that before, only heard from books."

"Books tend to help, but words cannot describe experience. Assuming that you never got into this business, it's a little simple. Just take the tools they hand you and repeatedly beat the hell out of the rock. If you find anything unlike the bland gray-brown rock, inform a guard ASAP."

"What if I don't?"

"You'd best be able to hide it well on the way back up. Sooner or later, they'll find it if it's left down here. They never search the cots unless they're suspicious for escapees."

"Has anyone ever escaped?"

Hender merely shook his head in reply. Philip's heart dropped right down to his stomach. No escapees usually means no hope to escape, which ultimately means that Philip's going to die a slave to a "race" that despises his kind, irregardless of innocence. Only a miracle, like that robot girl's arrival would provide SOME hope of break-out, but that's only one robot against a billion or more. Philip knew the Cluster despised Wakeman as much as humans, yet still try to get her to join their "proud" group.

"Not on their own, anyway."

Philip raised an eyebrow. Hender saw the facial expression and continued.

"There are some who break people out. I've no idea if they're still at large. They're called The ARKS. I've no idea what it even means."

The elevator exited the enclosed shaft, and moved down a fence-like shaft, showing the two occupants of the elevator the vast underground cavern, where humans of all shapes, sizes, and details were working their asses off, picking at the cave wall from ground level, or on many catwalks (natural or artificial) under the stone-like gaze of guards armed with spears, and occasionally a rifle that seemed to fire plasma.

One of the rifle-wielding guards opened the elevator door when Philip and Hender made it to the ground level. A spear-wielding guard then walked in and grabbed the two of them by their arms and threw them out of the elevator, despite Hender's insistence that he leave the elevator on his own. Hender just shrugged as he got up again, most likely since it always happens that way.

Philip got up. He didn't land on his bad leg, but it hurt more when he tried to step up. He was never left-footed after all, unlike Hender- who quickly got up. Philip struggled to use his left leg to balance himself before he could comfortably step on his right leg. Both of them were prodded by the same spear-wielding guard to move towards the tool store.

Both Philip and Hender were given relatively large pickaxes and brushes. Despite being large, they were pretty light and durable, as Philip learned as he got to work on a wall across the cavern from the elevator. Hender was further down to his right, talking with another prisoner as they worked at a speed four paces faster than Philip. One of them looked at Philip after Hender said something and turned back to digging. Once they were done talking, their pace increased tenfold. Philip found it difficult to pick fast, as he had to put his legs into it. Strangely enough, his heavily bandaged left arm didn't ache the slightest. The bandaging around his torso apparently held the rest of the left arm together. There were blood stains all around. Then again, the blood never really sickened Philip. Thinking back to his past, he was still used to it.

He doubted he'd ever get used to the pain in his leg as he mined. He got beaten twice from his slowness. They stopped when one of the guards came in and informed the second beat-dealer that Philip had a leg that still ached, and couldn't quicken as a result, then calling the guard an idiot for nearly injuring the human scum beyond regeneration and costing the Cluster a perfectly good slave.

Philip never understood the guards. One point they're beating the crap out of Philip with nightsticks, the next, they're caring for him. It was definitely something he never expected from such ruthless human-haters.

Philip lost track of time easily, as there was no clock or any form of light apart from the lamps hanging everywhere. However, he was grabbed by two guards, dragged down the cavern floor along with a bunch of other slaves, and stuffed on the elevator, which had enough room for up to ten slaves.

There were eight in the one Philip got into, making him the ninth. As the elevator went up, Philip recognized Johann amongst the crowd. He had cuts all over exposed skin, most likely from chipped rock going at high speeds due to the force put into dropping the pickax on rock walls.

"Phil, how goes it?" Johann asked. His voice was rasp and dry, obvious signs that he needed water sometime soon.

"Leg aches like hell..." Philip replied. As he listened to himself, he noticed that his voice resembled Johann's: rasp and dry. He also needed water and he completely forgot. "How about you?"

"I never saw Pete, and they took Gerald an hour before myself. I never saw him here. I saw you with Hender on the elevator."

"See anyone else recognizable?" Philip asked.

"Couldn't tell, who did you have in mind?"

"Some of the people from my paintball team."

"No. The only face I remember was yours. You had a nice hoody, by the way."

"Not so nice anymore now... wherever it is." Philip muttered.

The elevator came up seemingly faster than going down. Maybe it was because time seemed to fly when the conversation ended. Two insect bots divided the prisoners for them to escort. One of them picked five of the nine and brought them with him down the relatively wide hall. The second one took the rest, including Johann and Philip. They were all returned to their cells. Philip was once again alone, sitting on his cot. He wondered if his paintball team survived the invasion. If they did, did they escape or were they also captured?

The longer Philip waited for some kind of meal, the more and more Philip doubted anyone would survive.

A bowl was literally tossed into the cell. When it landed, a load of the gravy splashed across the floor, instantly sending a gravy stench around the room. Philip wondered if he'll ever get used to the smell.

Without hesitating, he tried to eat as much of the bland chicken as he could... At least, he thought it was chicken. It tasted like chicken and had the same texture, but it was hard to determine what it actually was under the thick layer of marinated gravy.

After eating as much as he could, he wiped up as much of the spilled gravy as he could using one of the unused mattresses, and scraped all of the stuff into the toilet. The smell seemed to dissipate after an hour, but that was long after Philip finally went to sleep after eating. It was a wonder that he managed to survive the strenuous labor at all. Hell, maybe after a few days of this, he'd be able to lift ten times more than before he was captured.

Dreams about the left hooks he could send at bullies when they cross the line filled his mind. Then they turned into reminders regarding the impossibility of his escape. He didn't have a plan, no tools, and the only time guards never watched him was when he had literally nothing in his cell apart from mattresses and a toilet too small for a human to fit in. Even if he could fit, he would drown before he could make his way to some sort of air pocket. He nearly dreamed about himself drowning in the toilet out of a stupid attempt to escape through that, and he snapped awake before death, gasping for breath as in he was actually in water. Dreams tended to do that, and Philip calmed himself down as he saw the reality.

The reality was this: He was in a cell with no chance of escape.


	4. Chapter 4

-----4

Almost as if his waking triggered a chain of events, the thick steel door sent a clanging sound throughout the cell. Obviously it was another time for Philip's shift.

However, this was not so. More of the unidentifiable slop was thrown in. Once again, lacking a spoon. They probably thought Philip would try to use the spoon to dig an escape route and eventually get out of the nightmarish mechanized prison. Such an action would be impossible, as the entire cell was comprised of metal plating, and the only way to break through would be a drill of a tougher material or a blowtorch; both of which, Philip neither had, nor had the skill to use efficiently.

Maybe there was something special about the spoons provided. If that were the case, why would they have stuck the spoon in the bowl of gravy-laden crap in the first place?

Philip thought of this in an attempt to prevent the inevitable: insanity and paranoia. After he could eat as much as his taste buds would allow, he dumped the rest in the toilet. The last thing he wanted was the stench of the gravy to fill the room so easily until they picked up the bowl.

He also thought about why they decided to put in chicken-like stuff with loads of gravy, just as a way to make something tasty that soon becomes unbearable after a bite or two. After two minutes of thinking, he came to a reasonable conclusion that it was more of a torture method and a way to keep the slaves "healthy" and able to continue working. The least they can do is give them a salad every once in a while. Lack of vitamin D is not exactly a good thing.

At that end of two minutes, the door clanged again. This time it was a guard to bring Philip to some other slave thing. He assumed it would be ice cream work, as he was brought to the garage instead of the elevator. He felt a harsh push on his back and he flew into the open back door. It slammed shut immediately afterward.

"You okay?" came the familiar voice of Hender. Philip pushed himself up and sat against a wall right beside the door. Hender was to his left, with a bunch of other slaves as well. Pete was also there, along with the man Philip saw Hender talk to last shift.

Pete seemed to have a cast over his jaw, most likely an accident fractured his jaw, making him incapable of speaking for the time being. Hender and the other man were making small talk regarding a subject Philip didn't know a thing about.

Despite the injury, Philip wanted to make small talk as well, so he turned to Pete.

"How'd that happen?" he asked, referring to the cast. Hender and the other man looked at Philip and saw Pete nod to Hender. Hender then answered.

"He and I were talking, and a guard caught him talking. I told him that I also talked, but he insisted that he started it."

Pete nodded.

"Why would you do that?"

Pete took his right arm and made a quick gesture, making it seem that he broke his arm. He then thought for a moment, trying to think of another gesture, and ended up shaping out a kite-shaped shield with his fingers.

"I don't get it," Philip said.

"I think he's one to prefer taking the punishment for the sake of others."

Pete nodded. He then pounded a fist into his chest without even flinching from the force.

"Decent resistance to pain?" the other man asked. Pete nodded again in reply.

Philip had a new respect for Pete. A generous tough guy who literally was, but doesn't prefer to show it off.

"What cell are you in, by the way?" Philip asked. Pete flashed three fingers, than four, and then one.

"Third floor, forty-first cell." Hender replied. Pete nodded yet again.

Philip's cell was 233, while Hender's was 231, along with the other man. The door to 232 didn't even have a slot for passing food through, so what the room was used for was unknown to Philip. Probably solitary confinement, ironic as it seemed to him.

Soon, the vehicle stopped, and the back door swung open into what seemed to be another cavern. The guard gathered the four of them and shoved them further into a cavern, where a few other guards were posted surrounding what looked to be a turnstile. Four metal pegs were welded onto the circular base. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the four of them were going to be pushing this thing for their entire shift. All four got to working it without question.

Four hours of straight turning. High above, they heard commerce between friendly-sounding robots, whether it be small talk or the purchase and selling of ice cream. Of all foods, why do these robots favor ice cream?

The thought temporarily distracted Philip, but he got back on his working before a random guard noticed. Either they didn't care, or they would've if Philip wasn't faster to get back to work. Another few hours passed, and Philip was tired beyond belief. He was not a sports person. Pete was tough, obviously, and the other two were used to this kind of thing already. All three were better off than Philip.

One of the guards pulled Philip away from the turn-stile and threw him to the ground a few feet away.

"Your broken leg should be healed by now. What the hell is wrong with you, scum?" the robot guard yelled, allowing his energy spear to glow slightly. Philip didn't know what to do. He was aching all over, his leg was searing with pain, and his right arm seemed dead under working too much. He couldn't even work up the energy to answer.

"Won't answer, eh?" the guard said as his energy spear flared in violet-blue plasma. "In that case, I outta teach you a lesson about mutiny.

The guard obviously didn't understand that Philip was new to this heavy labor, and was just drafted out of the blue. The other guards probably didn't care, as he didn't see any of them react.

A flash, and Philip didn't even feel anything, save for blood splattering on the front of his shirt. His eyes weakly opened, then shot all the way when he saw that the plasma spear ran through Pete's abdomen. The guard had a surprised look on his face, as did the other guards, who just started to move when they saw Pete move to take the blow.

All of Philip's fatigue was gone, out of the shock that this guy whom only knew Philip from the vehicle ride a few hours earlier selflessly got himself killed for his sake.

The guard turned his spear away and kicked Pete's corpse off of his spear, now stained a burnt red.

"You want to meet his fate?" said the guard. He obviously found potential amusement in this situation. "Go ahead, take your best shot. Avenge your boyfriend."

The robot deactivated his spear and slung it, awaiting Philip to take a shot. Philip tried punching with his right hand as hard as he could, but sharp pain shock-waved through his arm. His knuckles were bleeding and the guard was laughing, not even dented or scratched, only painted by the big of blood.

Philip was angry about the taunt, without another word, he swung his left fist as hard as he could. The guard continued to laugh, but the other two guards expressions changed from gleeful to shocked.

Philip punched right through the mechanized guts of the robot guard. The guard continued to laugh until Philip gripped a random core and ripped it out. He didn't even know he was displaying actions not natural to humans, he was just that enraged to not even notice. By the time he did notice, he had a crushed power core in his left hand and the guard was on the ground, bleeding oil.

His bandaging was also slashed apart, revealing metal plating and what looked like pale skin. Before Philip could examine what the hell just happened, the other two guards were upon him and pinned him down. After tying him up in chains, they dragged Philip out of the cavern. Hender and the other man were under the watchful eye of the fourth guard, who kept his spear activated in the event of further insubordination.

Nothing made sense to Philip as he saw the guards dragging him to what looked like a hospital.


	5. Chapter 5

-----5

The two guards dragged Philip through the lobby without even making a motion to anyone. They stopped to talk to the receptionist.

"What is Nurse 5700?" the right guard asked.

"In her office. Fifth floor, Room 72," came the reply.

"Thanks." replied the guard. The receptionist didn't seem to care, nor notice that there was a human in the hospital. The guards hefted Philip again and dragged him some more to the elevator. Philip blacked out for a moment, then came to seemingly two minutes later.

He was still in the hands of the guards, except there was another figure in front of them. The figure was recognized almost instantly.

It was that nurse back when Philip first woke up on Cluster Prime.

"Citizen 5700: we have reason to believe that you were the one to monitor the recovery of Slave Subject Seven-Ninety-Nine. We will need to ask you a few questions, or we will have to apprehend you on account of affiliation with huma-"

The guard never got to finish his sentence. His head exploded in molten metal and plasma sparks. Before the second guard could react, he met a similar fate. Both guards dropped to the floor, leaving Philip to remain on his knees. Both guards bled oil from their half-melted necks. Philip looked up to see that the nurse was equipped with a plasma-based pistol with a suppressor attached. She walked past Philip and scouted outside, then came back in and closed the door.

"Perfect timing. I was about to go speak to you after my shift." the nurse said, lifting Philip onto a hospital bed, which Philip recognized as the one he used to be on.

"What the hell is happening?" Philip asked.

"I have a lot of explaining, but now isn't the time. I need to get you out of here."

"What do you mean?" Philip asked, when the nurse suddenly pressed Philip's shoulder where a pressure point would be. Philip's overall pain immediately ceased. Artificial nervous systems?

"Look out of that window." She ordered. Despite his dislike of being bossed around by people he didn't know, he complied. "Use that subway right there to get to the outskirts. Leave the Subway at the area labeled Prime Epsilon."

"What is all this about?" Philip was confused. He just punched through a steel-plated guard, he was dragged to a hospital, and his two "escorts" were just slain by one of their own kind. The nurse suddenly took out a recognizable hoody, torn and missing its left sleeve and half of its right. She forced it onto Philip and shoved her silenced pistol in his hands.

"There's no time. Just do it. Everything will be explained once you do it," she barked. She no longer had the calm, soothing voice she once had earlier. Philip then finally nodded. "Also, don't worry. I'll remove the annoying human parts later." The nurse then pushed him out of the window.

Philip hit the ground, swearing under his breath. It was all so... sudden. There was no explanation, no reason, no expectation. However, all that was on his mind was getting to that so-called Prime Epsilon place. Apparently, everything will be answered there.

Keeping the pistol hidden, Philip got up and ran toward the Subway entrance. By natural shyness, he didn't want to be seen in such a public area, especially with a gun in his possession.

Down the stairs, everything seemed darker. It was also the first time Philip actually saw a clock, which hung above the subway arrival schedule.

It was 10:30, Cluster Prime time. What time it would be on Earth would still be a mystery. It was not even close to being rush hour. Children robots would be at school, parent robots would be at work, Any that would be skipping wouldn't be at the subway at this time.

However, if he were to take a train, he'd be spotted hands-down by those taking said train. Logically, he would have to walk the whole distance. Fortunately, his leg was feeling as good as new, so it won't be so agonizing.

Philip took the liberty to rip off all of the bandaging on his body before he jumped down to begin his journey to who-knows-where. He didn't ache anywhere, so the action would be justifiable. However, he never expected that his entire left arm and the point on his right leg were robotics and steel plating under what looked like artificial, but realistic skin. If he was made into a full robot, why did whoever do it make him disguised as a human?

The nurse was the most likely choice of whoever could have done it, but there had to be more, considering that she isn't even going with Philip to Prime Epsilon.

After what felt like half an hour, he came upon another stop. The giant metal pillar in the center was decorated with four signs. All four said on both sides Prime Gamma. Obviously they named these stations after Cluster Prime and a Greek letter. Why Greek of all languages was beyond Philip. Like the first one (Prime Beta), it was empty, had a door leading to waste removal units (bathrooms for robots, apparently), and a wide variety of exits; the biggest being the stairs leading up to the surface.

Philip picked up the pace as he ran down the next pitch-black tunnel. The only source of light were the occasional lamps, which he usually stopped at to get out of the way of the rarely-arriving train. Whoever operated the train didn't seem to notice as it passed by for the third time.


	6. Chapter 6

-----6

"So let me get this straight, the guards of Ice Cream Shift Five had a human go rampant and kill a guard. He was then taken to the hospital where he was last patched up, under suspicion that the nurse working there had something to do with it," one robot asked the prison captain.

"That's correct, Warden."

"And you know this because you were the one to pick up the subject in question."

"That's right."

"And last you heard from them, they didn't respond, so you went to the hospital to investigate."

"That's right. After I got the other two slaves on the vehicle and the body of the third and the guard taken care of, I went straight to the hospital."

"When you got there, you found the bodies of the other two guards."

"Their heads were blasted by plasma-based weaponry. Probably a relatively high-caliber plasma pistol of some kind."

"What about the nurse?"

"She wasn't there. However, we got a lead on where the slave ran off to."

"Where?"

"The subways is the most logical choice. A human wouldn't be dumb enough to stay above the surface, where the most eyes are."

"You do have a point. In that case, post a guard at every entrance. Have them report any sightings of the subject to any other unit. Knowing how long humans can last, this one won't be able to get past the station in Prime Zeta."

"Yes, Warden." said the captain as he pinged signals to every Cluster soldier in Prime Beta.

"By the way," the Warden said.

"Yes?"

"The more I think about this, the more I feel it has to do with the ARKS."

"Wouldn't be surprising... But of all times, why now?"

"I'm not sure quite yet. We'll have to think on it when we get more information."

---

The traveling process repeated for the next two stations. It was Delta after Gamma, and finally Epsilon. Philip climbed out of the pit and moved toward the stairs.

"Freeze!" another robotic voice shouted. Whatever the voice was, it had the slight tinge of static, and was otherwise undefinable. It sounded calm, urgent, and angry all at once... somehow. The sun was pretty high and in a position that could blind Philip if he tried to look up at the source of the voice. Philip tripped from surprise and face-planted on the stairs. His forehead was scraped and bled slightly. He wondered why he still had blood if he was still a robot. Despite the pain, Philip kept his position.

He felt himself getting picked up, then a black bag was thrown over his head.

"So this is what Jessie sent." said the same voice. "Get him in that store over there."

Philip felt himself getting pushed urgently. They soon stopped and got Philip to sit down. The black bag was removed and Philip could see the face of two robots. One looked also humanoid, in a design similar to that robot girl, except any torso or groin regions were covered by a black t-shirt and dark gray shorts. Both clothing articles were human-made. The second robot had an urban camo-based spray paint all over his steel armor, complemented with a plasma rifle and SMG.

"J, we're pulling off too many risks as it is. Chances are that the Cluster's closing in on us." said the camo-designed robot.

"Which is why we're in this empty store. Once we get through the back, we can make our way through that abandoned building across the CHROME surface railway. After that, we can call for air support." The dressed robot replied.

"But for this kid?" the second said, peeking over the counter, trying to spot something, then got into cover again.

"Jessie's choice, not mine. You're better off asking her once we get to the Camel."

Laser fire started punching the walls of the store. The camo-designed robot spread suppressing fire against the Cluster-bots that just arrived. Camo-bot then took cover again and kicked open a door.

"Come on, follow me!" the other barked to Philip. Camo then grabbed Philip's mechanical arm and pulled him into the doorway after the other robot. He then set more suppressing fire against the insect robots that quickly moved toward the store like a CT unit. A few dropped when they were hit by some random shots from the assault rifle Camo had.

Philip continued running, trying not to lose the attire-donning robot.

"What the hell is happening?" Philip yelled, now annoyed by the fact he was apparently lied to about the explanation.

"We were going to tell you what was happening, but the bugs woke up earlier than we thought." the shirt-donned robot replied. His steel hair kept its wild style like marble, despite the sudden movements he made in a way to navigate through the dark backrooms behind the store.

"J, I managed to blockade the door," said the other robot as he caught up to them.

"Here's our exit," the one called "J" said, kicking open another door with his plated foot. The metal door hinges broke off by the sheer force. It took a second kick to send it out of the frame. J then grabbed Philip and pulled him toward an abandoned building on the other end of a wide railway. A train horn sounded off. All three looked to their right to see a giant rail-based vehicle scream toward them. All three burst into a mad sprint to get off of the rails, Philip didn't even need J to drag him to know that they needed to run.

The train would prove to be an advantage. As it passed, the one called J had an idea.

"Lets jump this thing." he said. Camo didn't have any qualms, but Philip was the exact opposite. However, he couldn't do anything as the duo grabbed both Philip's arms and leaped right onto the train without getting squashed like flies.

By the time all three got on the train and hid, the Cluster soldiers ran out the back door. By the time they could look around, the three were gone.


	7. Chapter 7

-----7

Philip woke up after apparently blacking out before jumping onto the train.

"You're pretty light, but I carried lighter robots," the same voice said again.

Philip's eyes opened. He was strapped onto a side seat in what looked like a transport helicopter. It seemed to be flying low; otherwise the side door wouldn't be wide open. The camo-bot was strapped onto a seat, which had a plasma-based chain-gun attached. The one called J was drinking some black paint-like liquid out of a flask. Upon smelling, Philip determined it was motor oil. J then held out the flash to Philip, offering a swig.

Philip declined. J then shrugged and downed the rest in two more gulps. He then replaced the cap and shoved it into one of the pockets in his shorts. Philip then realized that J had a rifle as well. Unlike weapons he's seen before, it was not plasma-based. It appeared to be a FAMAS, except heavily modified. It still kept the basic shape and the magazine clip feeding into the bullpup designed rifle.

"Now that you're awake, though, we can explain what the hell's happening."

"About time..." Philip muttered with slight rudeness in his voice. The one called J seemed to understand the rudeness and ignored it.

"Name's Jakob. The camouflaged one on the turret is Terrace. Jessie is the nurse that you obviously met." he said, sticking a thumb to his left. Philip looked to see that the nurse was there in the chopper as well.

"Why am I here?" Philip asked, trying to lean forward, but the seat belt was well-secured.

"You're here because we needed more good soldiers for our little group." Jessie replied.

"You're not making sense. I'm no soldier."

"You play paintball, and you apparently have for quite a while."

"That doesn't necessarily mean I'm actually good. Of all the humans that were kidnapped and brought here, why the hell did you pick me?"

"It wasn't my choice, to be honest. It's just that you were the only one with such injuries that you had to be hospitalized as much as you did. I took the liberty to convert all of your internal systems to that of a robot. I also started giving you artificial skin, but I couldn't finish in time before the Captain arrived. I bandaged the rest and let you go. I planned to pick you up this evening, but thanks to the recent events, we got you here faster, and with more of an advantage right now, as we have their soldiers on a wild goose chase that failed the minute you got to Jakob and Terrace."

"What about the others?" Philip asked. Hender, Gerald, and Johann along with many other humans were still there.

"They're our goal. We've been busting out slaves ever since we got started over a month ago. Ever since Jakob arrived here."

"What's he got to do with this?" Philip asked, "From what I can see and hear, you're the apparent leader."

"Technically, Jakob has always been the leader. He just doesn't prefer being relied on for leadership, so he passed the title to myself and my superiors."

"You see, I used to be an earthling. I was also a robot, and I don't recall how I became one. After two weeks of being in school, I disappeared. You recall, right?"

Philip in fact did recall. The one whom Don Prima picked a fight against alongside three of his bastard friends. He was disguised as a human, but still beat down all four by his agility and close-quarters combat ability alone. The one who appeared as a robot two days after that. Philip never learned the name, only that he was apparently a violent, yet quiet person who enjoyed drawing above all else. He disappeared two weeks into the school year, while the Robot girl remained and didn't care. Even though both of them worked together at one point, they never were officially "friends". To see the so-called "violent one" on board unnerved Philip.

"Anyway," Jessie continued, "We managed to train all the humans we busted out in the ways of urban combat, as that's basically what Cluster Prime is. We trained them thanks to Jakob's history of being caught in gang wars against his will before becoming a robot, along with what Jakob calls "Common sense".

"Common... sense...?" Philip asked. He could hardly believe that common sense trained soldiers.

"It's not that hard to grasp, yet humans seem to not grasp it even for a minute. Most likely because they ultimately fear for their lives... Cowards..." Jakob said, growling slightly when he said "cowards".

"You don't?" Philip asked.

"No. I never was a good contributor to society here, nor was I one for the humans. My so-called "death" only would make a difference to the ARKS, and no one else."

"The ARKS?" Philip knew they were the ARKS ever since they said busting out slaves. Perhaps there was hope for his survival after all.

"That's our group name. There's no meaning behind it. Only consists of us three, the pilot, who's called "Orange", and two others: Trig and Drawl. They call us a gang because we tend to allow the free humans to wreak havoc in our name. They're afraid to go to war, but they're not afraid to conduct illegal activity to public places. The human mind boggles the robot mind these days..." Jessie commented. Jakob huffed slightly. He knew what the nurse meant, but couldn't help but take slight offense, as he apparently used to be human much like Philip.

"Well, now that you're no longer under custody of the Cluster tyrants, we'll have to get rid of your artificial skin. Your brain has managed to figure out that it no longer requires a nervous system, so it'll be safe to remove the rest of it." Jessie continued.

"So... what, you completely changed me into a robot against my will?" Philip asked angrily.

"Again, you were the only one with injuries severe enough for me to actually do it. The other four were too easy and quick to patch up-"

"Wait," Philip interrupted, "You said four?"

"Yes."

"There was Johann, Gerald, Pete, and myself. That's it," Philip corrected.

"No, there was one other. A girl, if I'm not mistaken. Only one that wasn't injured from the quick invasion."

"Sal..."

"Who?"

"Sal, she was the leader of my paintball group."

"I guess it'll pain you to hear that she died yesterday from over-dose from tasers. She was genetically faint-of-heart."

Philip froze. She died, but gave out no scream. Was she part of the ice cream shift that day?

"Though faint-of-heart, She was the quickest to recover, so she was sent to the prison earlier than the rest of you, in case you're wondering why you never saw her."

"She's dead?" Philip yelled, struggling to escape the durable seat belt.

"All the more reason for us to act more quickly. She died under the unfair tyranny of the Cluster Guard, and it's up to the ARKS to get the humans out of here and back to where they once lived peacefully."

"Easy for you to say, after what you did to me."

"You were going to die from your wounds if I didn't do it. The guards didn't know that. They were too stupid to know the human anatomy, unlike myself. You are one of the few sacrifices to add to the greater good. We traded your humanity for the salvation of hundreds, or even thousands more."

"Still doesn't cheer me up from the conscription..." Philip muttered. The rest of the ride was silent. Four minutes later, the helicopter lowered into an underground hangar between a group of hills. Once the chopper landed, huge titanium doors slammed shut, shrouding the hangar in darkness.

Light Emitting Diodes flickered on, flooding the hangar with light, slaughtering the darkness. Terrace was already off of the side turret and walking off toward what Philip determined by nearby signs as the command center. Jessie also walked off, followed by Jakob. Jakob stopped before he jumped off and unhooked Philip from the seat belt. Another robot with treads for feet rolled from the cockpit.

Despite the name, the robot "Orange" was really silver with a black stripe dividing him diagonally from his left shoulder to where his right hip would be if he were a human. From his right shoulder to left "hip", there was a belt containing secured plasma batteries and a plasma-based rifle strapped onto his back. His head was riddled with visors and scanning equipment, along with what looked to be a scope on a hydraulic-powered arm. He was definitely equipped to be a pilot or sniper. He had humanoid arms, head, and torso, but his legs were merely treads.

Jakob beckoned Philip to follow, and follow he did. All of them were moving toward the Command enter after Terrace.

---

The Command Center was an underground meeting room with a bunch of chairs and a pedestal around the front. Hovering over the pedestal was a hologram of a mask of some kind. There was nothing behind the mask when it turned towards the second figure, who wore a trench coat and a hood, which shrouded everything above where his nose would be (if he was human) in darkness. Despite the mystery, it was easy to see that he too was a robot, much like everyone that entered.

Terrace was already seated in a random chair, his urban camo-paint now replaced with a more civilian design. The armor most likely had a chameleon-like layer, which allowed him to change the design into whatever camo he has on his mind. His overall color scheme resembled Orange, except there were more color differences. Terrace also had a black golf hat on along with what looked to be a headset. Jessie walked up to the duo on the far end of the meeting room and sat in a chair beside the pedestal. Jakob sat beside Orange, who remained standing, since he was equipped with treads and couldn't sit. Philip sat in another one of the four random chairs around the edge of the room.

"Welcome back, Jessie, Terrace, Orange, and Jakob." The hologram said, "I trust that your operation went by smoothly?"

"More than we expected," Jessie replied, "We got the subject over twelve hours earlier than planned."

"I assume that that one there is the subject." the hooded one said, looking towards Philip. Despite the fact that he couldn't see the hooded one's eyes, Philip knew that he was looking straight at him. It was unnerving.

"Correct. Everyone, I'd like you to meet Philip. Philip, this is Trig and Drawl." Jessie said, referring to the hologram and then the hooded one. Philip didn't say anything. He just waved to the other two.

"And this Philip helps us... how?" Drawl asked.

Jessie was silent, most likely thinking of words to say. It then became apparent to Philip that the ARKS were pretty disorganized when it came to planning for the future, while they're good at busting humans out. Even so, the latter has yet to be proven to Philip.

"In case you haven't noticed," Trig said, "All of the humans we had "employed" have been recently captured by the mass search from the stunt we pulled off.

"All?" Jakob asked. It occurred to Philip that Jakob took this bad news the worst.

"Yes, all two hundred and eighty-eight have been captured and re-circulated into slavery.

Jakob cursed. "So what you're saying is that all we've been doing has been for naught,"

"It would appear so. If we don't get a fool-proof plan ASAP, the ARKS is just going to be a flea that's inevitably going to die off."

"Do we have anything apart from the chopper and the stealth ship?"

"Stealth ship?" Philip asked. He suddenly was coming up with some idea, much like before during Paintball. He needed to confirm something "As in space travel-worthy?"

"Where are you going with this?" Trig asked.

"Can it travel through space?"

"It has warping capabilities, so yes," Trig replied. "Why are you asking this all of a sudden?"

"We could ask for help from Earth's forces,"

"What about the humans here?" Jakob asked.

"If you guys continue to break them out, they'll apparently just get captured all over again. Worse off: if they manage to capture either one of you, you'll be executed, keep it up at this rate, and the whole group's going to be destroyed."

Everyone was silent.

"Are you sure this kid's only seventeen." Drawl asked.

"Same age as me," Jakob replied. "Give or take a month. I believe."

"He's one hell of a tactician," Drawl replied, sitting down in another chair. "Continue, Philip."

"I'm thinking that if we could get everyone to Earth, we can get that robot girl to help us." Philip said, starting to turn red upon realizing that everyone there was looking at him.

"She's an active response unit dedicated to the defense of the planet Earth. I doubt she'd go to-" Jessie started to say, but Philip interrupted.

"She's programmed to fight for humanity. Seeing as she has the powers and weapons that we're not even close to equaling... assuming of course... She'd definitely help us free around a thousand humans to bring back home."

"She leaves, and that leaves a couple billion vulnerable to attack from the Cluster." Jessie continued, alight annoyance in her voice. Obviously she didn't like to be cut off like Philip just did.

"And yet, they captured me." Philip retorted.

"Jessie, with respect, Philip does have a plan, which he came up with within seconds upon hearing that we have a stealth craft capable of intergalactic travel." Trig said.

"I realize that, it's just..." Jessie sighed, "Jakob, what do you think?"

"I knew the XJ-9 unit for a while, and she's literally built for fighting. I'm just a guy experienced in C.Q.C. Philip's just a kid with paintball experience, you're just a nurse, Orange is a hunter, Drawl is... Hell, I don't even know what Drawl is. Lastly Trig's a hologram on a table. The only one with actual full-fledged war experience is Terrace, and he doesn't even have super powers. No offense intended to any of you." Jakob replied, also showing signs of annoyance; most likely from the fact that the group was arguing and that he's being relied on for decision-making, which was something mentioned earlier that he didn't like doing.

"Alright. We'll make it so. We don't have anything to lose but ourselves. We'll need to get the helicopter in the stealth craft as well. Terrace, Orange, if you would please. Trig, Drawl, you get to the stealth craft and warm it up. Jakob, Philip, you go with the first two. I'll meet you all at the ship." Jessie said, clapping her hands to announce the meeting was over. Everyone left the room immediately after.

"Nice plan, I gotta say," Jakob commented to Philip.

"What?" Philip asked.

"That plan, with going to Earth and calling XJ-9 to help. I didn't even think about Earth until now, even though it's what we're helping fight to protect. Only problem is if she refuses."

"If she refuses, all we've got now is ourselves." Philip thought. There had to be a way to get her to comply with this request. After all, she IS built for stuff like this, and the reasons should be enough to get her to join them.

---

"Warden?"

"Don't even tell me."

"The bad news or the good news?"

"There's good news? What a surprise. I'll assume that the bad news is that the rampant escaped."

"Well, the good news is that thanks to the mass search, despite our losing of the subject, we captured all of the humans the ARKS originally had hiding out throughout Cluster Prime."

"Definitely a plus on our side,"

"You do realise that capturing all of them makes what the ARKS have done completely in vain?"

"Yes, and that discourages any more rampancies. I'm not an idiot, Captain."

"Still pissed about the escapee, and the fact that Citizen 5700 was actually one of them?"

"No kidding, Captain."

"I'll leave you to it then,"

"Actually, go speak to the Queen. Inform her of both the bad news and the good news. She'll most likely send us on another abduction round, which I've been itching to do."

"Yes, Warden."


	8. Chapter 8

-----8

The stealth cruiser, code-named Time, soon had the helicopter (soon learned by Philip to be called High Hopes) on board and strapped securely to prevent damage. As Philip walked down one of the few walkways to the cockpit, he heard Terrace singing. It was apparently resulting from the music he was listening to from his headset. From what Philip remembered, it was Pink Floyd, some of the old, yet ingenious music from before the 20th century. Philip was also a Pink Floyd fan, so he could recognize any Pink Floyd song Terrace decided to sing aloud. Everyone else didn't seem to mind.

Orange and Drawl were at the ship controls. Another pedestal was beside the navigation window, where Trig's form hovered in a blue aura. Jessie sat at another terminal, much like Terrace, except she was across the room and wasn't singing. Jakob was apparently in another part of Time, securing equipment they planned to bring with him. Amongst the equipment, Philip saw many weapons; be them plasma or projectile-based. Even some close-quarters weapons like swords. Why they would need such ineffective weapons (against robots) was beyond Philip.

The ship rumbled slightly, indicating that everything was set, and the ship was lifting off. A few minutes after assorted navigation through a tunnel system, Time shot out of the well-hidden hangar like a bullet, piercing the atmosphere within minutes and soaring into eternal space. It then disappeared into a freshly-made warp channel. It would be a few minutes before they would exit and find themselves at the human homeworld, Earth.

---

During the warp travel, Philip saw Jakob, Jessie, and Terrace occasionally leave. Trig watched multiple systems at once while Orange manned the navigation systems. Drawl didn't move the entire time. Upon exiting the portal, Earth was right in front of them. The beautiful mix of greens, blues, and the many shades of the clouds made the planet Earth instantly recognizable.

To Philip, he was returning home. His train of thought suddenly landed to wondering how his parents were doing. In fact, he never even thought about how his parents were doing until now.

"What's the location of unit XJ-9," Orange suddenly said towards Philip. Orange was the largest robot out of all of them, easily at a towering eight feet, while Drawl was the second-highest at about seven or more. Just looking up at both of them made Philip speechless.

Jakob beat Philip to answering. "Tremorton. That's the name of the city. It's right down there," he said, pointing down to the end of what looked like a giant crack in the earth. Orange simply nodded towards Trig, who got the systems ready for landing.

"J, we got contact." Terrace announced.

"This is supposed to be a stealth fighter." Philip said.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that warp signatures can be hidden. No matter how I tried, it's just not possible," the robot replied, who now scanned the radar system for any info on the red dots that appeared to the left.

"Lets hurry and get down there. The faster we get away from the warp signature, the better."

Suddenly something hit the ship, causing it to lurch to the right.

"What the hell just hit us?" Terrace yelled.

"This isn't Skyway Patrol..." Jakob muttered, "Damn, looks like our job's going to be both easier and hard. Orange, get us close to Tremorton, but fly over it. Philip, come with me. Trig, you know what to do."

Trig nodded his acknowledgment. Philip stood and followed Jakob out the door. After two hallways, they were at the small air lock.

"Brace yourself," Jakob said, grabbing onto a steel bar spanning the top of the air lock. Philip did the same as the first door began to close.

The second door sucked all of the oxygen right out into the vacuum of space upon opening. The pressure nearly sent Jakob and Philip flying. It secured itself more when it began to enter the Earth's atmosphere.

"Damn, I was hoping not to burn this stuff..." Jakob muttered, referring to his tee and shorts. However, for the sake of Time, the removal of what hit them was imperative.

Jakob grabbed onto the ledge and crawled onto the top of the ship, the fire easily burning his shirt and shorts away. Phil followed, and had what was left of his pants and hoody burn to dust all the same. His skin was also completely singed off. On top of the ship was another android, standing at six and-a-half feet. The design being feminine, easily noticeable by the pigtails that seemed to not mind the intense heat.

Soon, the ship burst fully into the atmosphere and stopped burning. It was a matter of time before they reached Tremorton.

The female automaton was trying to punch a hole into Time's shell, however the stealth craft was specially designed to be extremely resistant to lasers and heavy forces. After all, it was the only ship the ARKS had.

Tunnel vision on the girl's part made it easy for Jakob to get close. Once he did, he tackled the girl. Both he and the Wakeman girl flew off of the ship. Philip jumped after them, while Time flew into the mountains, while in hot pursuit by two human-designed ships.

Skyway Patrol, the only guys who can get warrants to remove the robot girl by any means necessary if the time actually came. They were practically the Police force of Earth and the only defenders of Earth if the robot girl was not even there. They had any number of officers, and any number of them could be corrupt. Philip definitely never liked them.

However, thoughts about Skyway patrol distracted from Philip from the reality. He was skydiving, and the other two are trying to fight. Philip got into a bullet shape to decrease surface area and therefore fall faster. Philip saw Jakob and the robot girl land punches, sending each other around as they fell.

After landing one good hit on the Wakeman girl, she activated her boosters, which Philip first saw came from her feet and pigtails. Philip darted past her as she hovered. Jakob was unstable and was spinning in free-fall.

However, Jakob saw Philip trying to catch up. He spread his arms to try to slow his own fall so Philip would catch up before they both hit the ground. Philip did so and grabbed Jakob, who stabilized into a good skydiving pose.

He nodded his thanks, and whipped open a compartment in his relatively large arm. With Philip holding on, Jakob fired off what was in there. What was in there was a parachute.

It unfurled, but unfurled incorrectly. At least it provided some slower falling. Both of them looked down to see that they were headed straight for Tremorton in their fall. How convenient, thought Philip.

The two of them crashed in the middle of Tremorton park a few seconds later. Already a few people were gathered there to watch the relatively terrifying event. The humans most likely thought that they were normal skydiving humans, and all screamed from the force in which they crashed. Any human would have had every bone shattered, while a robot would only make it out with a few dents and scratched.

Jakob was relatively unharmed, while Philip, who was unused to this sort of thing, didn't know how to properly land from such a speed.

Both of them got out from under the parachute, and everyone's cries of worry turned into cries of panic. Jakob tried to raise his hands to inform everyone to remain calm, but he was cut off. A sucker punch by the incoming robot girl sent Jakob ten yards away. Philip ducked to avoid another punch, but was then thrown by an equally powerful kick.

Jakob got up and punched one fist into his palm, and taunted the female automaton, indicating that he wanted a fair hand-to-hand fight. In the short time Philip knew Jakob, he knew that despite Jakob's complete lack of super powers, he was a master in Close Quarters Combat (CQC). The fem-bot didn't know this, apparently, and rushed in to take Jakob down as quick as possible.

Once she threw the first punch, she instantly knew she wasn't going to win in hand-to-hand combat. Before she could retreat and use one of her many thousand weapons, Jakob got a good grip on the fist she threw and pulled her towards him, where he grabbed the second arm and threw her to the ground. Jakob planted a knee into her back while Jakob twisted her arms behind her. Jakob made her eat asphalt.

"You let her go!" A voice cried out. Jakob turned to see a relatively short, black-haired kid in a brown hoody aiming what looked like a giant gun in his hands. Before Jakob could say anything, the boy fired.

A net flew out of the gun, poised to catch Jakob and throw him right off the robot girl. At least, it would have done that, but Philip jumped in the way and took the hit. Philip was thrown past Jakob and rolled another few yards away.

"Hold your fire!" Jakob barked, "We're not here to fight!"

"How do I know that?" The boy asked, loading another net into the so-called deployment system.

"We just escaped from the Cluster to inform the XJ-9 unit of something that could use her attention." Jakob said, letting go of the robot and moving back. It appeared that neither of them recognized Jakob whatsoever.

The robot girl got up and re-straightened her hands, which were twisted a bit too far than Jakob expected. She then fired a laser, Jakob was about to brace himself, but the beam pierced the netting that trapped Philip, ripping through many of the threads. Philip just tore through the rest from there.

"Alright, what is it?" She asked, an annoyed expression on her face. Obviously she didn't like the fact that Jakob twisted her hands.


	9. Chapter 9

-----9

The park was empty, save for those who were watching the fight. It appeared that some of the kids from school were passing gossip to their friends. Either they remembered Jakob, or were acting the exact same was as when Jakob first went there. Either way, Jakob couldn't care less. They were free humans, and the ones that needed saving were not on Earth.

He calmed himself down from the fight, something most likely trained ever since Jessie was telling him off regarding his anger issues. Philip got to Jakob's side. He had his plasma-based pistol that Jessie gave him slung on his side.

"Well?" the robot girl asked. Jakob raised his hand to her and looked to the sky. Philip was wondering what was happening, but then he heard it as well. More space craft were moving close. Philip also looked up, to spot the ever-so-familiar orange and dark red plating of a Cluster Ship.

"Damn, did the Cluster follow us?" Jakob asked into the communicator he had strapped to his shoulder.

"No. They must have come on their own time." Jessie's voice replied. She most likely was looking at the radar systems Time possessed.

"Get High Hopes in the air and get Orange a good view. We've got company." Jakob replied.

"Copy that. Drawl and Trig are already in the chopper. ETA's two minutes."

"Two minutes of killing bugs. I like the sound of that," Jakob said, grabbing his FAMAS-like rifle and passing it to Philip, who caught it at the last moment. Jakob ran towards an area, where a troop deployment crate dropped from the ship's hangar. The robot girl acted instinctively and flew towards the Cluster ship. Philip didn't even know how the rifle worked, as it was definitely something different from a paintball marker.

Philip took aim anyway. After all, aiming and shooting was much like a marker. It was just the inner workings that were vastly different. What Philip didn't realize when he started shooting at troops deploying from more orbital drop crates was the recoil, which was significantly more than paintball.

Another crate slammed into the ground right in front of him, and an insect robot jumped out and was poised to strike Philip. Suddenly, the bug's head exploded and the body was thrown back. Philip dove to the side as another bug jumped out, only to meet the same fate. Philip looked to where the shooting was coming from, and there was High Hopes Another flash came from inside the Helicopter, and then Philip got what was happening.

Orange was a sniper, and a hell of a good one at that. More flashes came out, resulting in more dead bugs. Philip jumped into the crate and opened fire at any remaining bugs. Soon, the crate was empty. By the time he got out, Terrace was also out there, opening fire with his own rifle while running into the fray. Up above, the ship was taking hits left and right from the Wakeman's many weapons and gadgets. Soon, the ship was forced to retreat, lest it get too damaged to function at all.

Philip then thought of something. If the robot girl was concentrating on only this ship, it would allow another ship to move in to do actual capturing. It would explain why she never saved Philip and the paintball group.

He saw Jakob running back. He had burn marks and bullet holes all over his armor, and he was limping slightly, but he still functioned properly. Philip called out to him, and Jakob took cover behind the crate with Philip. One look at Philip's face gave Jakob the idea.

"Are there any other ships around?"

"We're running anti-stealth scans, and we came up with a ship four miles from here."

"Get Time up and intercept the ship."

"One problem: we got hit."

"Hit?"

"Yeah, those human forces got our engines before we landed."

"Bloody Skyway Patrol," Jakob cursed, "Is there any way to intercept them?"

"Inform the robot girl!" Philip replied before Jessie could think. "She's distracted by that ship, which is most likely how they captured me last time."

"Agreed. Jakob, get the XJ-9's attention using any means necessary," Jessie replied. Jakob nodded and waved to Orange, who then got on the COMM channel.

"Orders?" came the monotone voice.

"We need you to get the Wakeman's attention. Do not shoot her."

"Consider it done."

Another flash came up, this time, the shot went right in front of her vision. The robot girl flinched and looked towards where the shot came from. She then saw Jakob waving from on top of the orbital drop crate. She flew down gracefully.

"What is it?"

"Four miles from here, south-west. There's a second ship and it's capturing humans. None of us can get there that fast." Jakob said, pointing in said direction. The robot girl nodded and flew off.

"Don't worry. We can take care of these guys!" Jakob called after her. He then turned to look down at Philip and held out a hand. Philip tossed up the rifle Jakob tossed to him earlier and then started firing at the Cluster-bots, who were easily being beaten by Terrace's superior firepower and cover. Although if he didn't get any help soon, the small army would obliterate Terrace.

Philip got out the plasma pistol and started taking shots while walking out of the cover. Orange was giving more and more sniping support. After a full two minutes of straight combat, all of the Cluster soldiers were either dead, or wounded beyond fighting capability.

Jakob sat down at one of the ruined crates. Terrace got to Jakob while Philip walked around, looking for any Cluster still alive and functioning.

"You took quite a number of hits." Terrace commented.

"I'd have to be able to, otherwise I wouldn't be that effective in CQC." Jakob replied, taking a can of motor oil that Terrace offered. The armored soldier chuckled.

"Well, a good start to this mission. What should we call it, anyway?" Terrace asked.

"We'll concentrate on getting it over with. When the time arises, we'll probably have something by then." Jakob said.

"I'd call it Goodbye Blue Sky."

"Another Pink Floyd song name?" Philip commented, "You named the ship and the helicopter after other songs as well."

"No one complains, and I built those two."

"Point taken, but it's a bit long." Jakob muttered, taking another swig of the motor oil.

"How about Money, then?" Terrace asked, laughing a bit.

"Whatever floats your boat. Lets just hope she makes it and saves those humans..."

"Just keep it at Goodbye Blue Sky." Philip said.

"Considering only five made it to Cluster Prime, and they were all badly wounded, chances are that there were a bunch more that died, or managed to avoid capture somehow."

"Scary thought. Thanks for shattering my hopes, Terrace."

"Sorry," Terrace replied.

They both sat, occasionally watching Philip take aim with the pistol and shoot at an apparently downed Cluster soldier. High Hopes soon hovered over and landed. Orange, Drawl, and Trig were there. Terrace boarded, and the helicopter flew off towards where their ship landed. What Sky Patrol has done to Time was now their top priority in investigating.

That left Jakob and Philip in waiting for the robot girl. It was definitely going to be a wait.

She soon returned, slightly damaged, but still functioning as if the so-called "wounds" weren't even there to begin with.

"How'd it go?" Philip asked.

The robot girl shook her head. "They got away, but I prevented abduction."

"Good to hear," Philip replied.

"That's basically what has been going on for the past few months. They distract you while taking humans into slavery under the Cluster. We really do need your help in busting out the humans and getting them back to Earth."

"How many exactly?" she asked.

"About a thousand, maybe more. It's not much, compared to the billions that are here, but it's still something worth saving."

"However, there's a problem with you leaving. If you leave, it makes the planet more vulnerable to attack." Philip said.

"So what are you saying?" the girl asked, the orange-red haired boy Philip usually saw hanging around the robot girl arrived.

"Jenny, almost time for school." the boy said.

That's the name, Philip grimaced. He had forgotten her name for some reason. "I guess I'll have to go back as well."

"Same with myself," Jakob said.

"What about the others?"

"Terrace, Jessie, Orange, and Drawl are all older than me, and Trig doesn't go anywhere without Drawl. So it's just ourselves."

"I guess I'll see you at school. I got to get my spare hoody and pants."

"I'll take the plasma pistol back to Time. I'll also get myself new shirt and shorts."

Philip tossed the pistol to Jakob, who then ran off towards High Hopes, which just came back carrying Orange. Philip simply ran toward his own neighborhood.

It didn't change much from the few days he was gone. His house still as dismal as ever. He wondered if his parents were still there. Upon entering, he immediately noticed the thin layer of dust on the cabinet. This fact was odd, since both his parents were neat-freaks.

Philip entered the living room, where he noticed that despite the emptiness, the television was left on. Also something odd, since both his parents also didn't like wasting electricity. Philip turned off the television and moved towards the kitchen. Unlike the entrance hallway and living room, the kitchen was actually normal-looking. Everything was still there.

Philip shook his head and ran up the stairs back in the hall and took a left toward his room. Once there, he threw on some clean pants, a shirt, and a hoody. He then closed and locked the front door on the way out. Running to the school felt... easier. It was probably because he was a robot and could no longer tire. It didn't matter. All that did was the fact that he was soon on the sidewalk right in front of the school. Kids were entering left and right. Philip caught sight of Jakob, now donning another tee and knee-length shorts, and ran up to him.

"How exactly will they react to us?"

"Most likely the same way as they do with Jenny when she first arrived."

"And that was...?"

"According to what I remember her telling me before I disappeared, next to none."

Philip nodded, and he pushed himself into the crowd alongside Jakob. No one seemed to notice the metal faces of Philip or Jakob. It was just as Jakob first predicted. Philip and Jakob soon separated, most likely for their own classes. Philip blended in almost as if he never left. Jakob apparently needed to re-introduce himself. Things tend to be forgotten quickly in Tremorton. Either that or both Philip and Jakob tended to try to live uninteresting events throughout school, and weren't noticed so easily.

It was true for Philip, but Jakob was one who was known to be violent in nature. They probably forgot about him just to get rid of the memories of his fighting. Despite their robotic nature, they fit in quite easily. After the first two periods, Philip decided to give another visit to the principal's office. He was surprised to see Jakob at the door as well.

"What are you here for?" Philip asked.

"Most likely the same as you: talking to Radzinski."

Philip simply nodded, and the door swung open. Philip never saw the Vice Principal out of his office, so it came as a shock to realise that despite his merciless voice and power status, that he was shorter than Philip, let alone Jakob.

"Ah, you two. Come in if you would please." the short man said as he walked back into his office.

Jakob shrugged and followed Philip into the office. They both sat down in two of the four chairs stationed in front of the office desk, where the vice-principal sat at.

"So, Philip, you've been gone for three days, I believe."

"I was actually hoping someone would tell me that, in all honesty." Philip replied, not sounding at all rude.

The vice-principal nodded, then turned to Jakob. "And you've been gone since the second week of school."

"Is it too late to catch up on stuff?" Jakob asked.

"Normally, yes. However, assuming you can work at the same speed as Miss Wakeman, you can catch up on all of your work within this weekend... IF you actually work on it."

"I'll just need the pile then. Where is it?"

"Ask your third and fourth-period teachers. First two don't even give homework, considering the subjects there.

"Phys. Ed and Art."

"Exactly. You may go."

Jakob nodded his thanks and walked out of the door.

"Same goes with you, but it's not that much. Easily something you can do within the weekend as well. Just talk to your teachers. Dismissed."

"Thank you, sir." Philip replied. He then left the office and walked toward the cafeteria.


	10. Chapter 10

-----10

The cafeteria never changed. Same slop of who-knows-what on trays that look as if acid ate through them a little, despite the fact that some of the plates are made of glass. Despite the toxicity, the crap was edible. It always surprised Philip that people, including himself, still ate the stuff.

However, he was no longer a human, and didn't need to eat any more. He didn't know if the evil-looking chefs and cafeterians even cared or noticed, as Philip saw them dump slop onto the robot girl's plate as well. She, along with Jakob, had bottles of motor oil on their own trays to complement the questionably healthy food.

Jakob sat down at a table near the doors, where he pulled out what looked like a tattered book and lay it wide open on the table. As he sipped motor oil, he was softly moving a pencil around one of the pages. It was a drawing book, hands-down. Philip took a seat in front of Jakob.

Jakob pushed the second of his motor oil cans to Philip, who reluctantly popped it open and took a swig. Since being made into a robot, he seemed to develop a taste for the stuff normally toxic to humans. He never noticed it during slavery, but as he was riding in High Hopes on the way to the ARKS base, he subconsciously embraced the smell of the motor oil Jakob was drinking.

Philip took a look at Jakob's drawings. Some made no sense, while some were simply concept art for what looked like weapons. Jakob flipped pages back to take a look at earlier drawings, and Philip also noticed that Jakob also wrote what looked like a story synopsis, character lists, and storyboards for something Philip wouldn't be able to imagine. All of them seemed to have a dark theme to them. Be it the guns, the enigmatic character in a trenchcoat and a wide-brim fedora Philip saw in an earlier drawing, (which seemed to populate many pages) or the overall scenes.

Suddenly, that Don Prima douche bag came along. If anyone was going to remember Jakob, it would be him.

"Don't even try anything." Jakob simply said, without even looking from his drawing book.

The upper-class "pig" snorted and walked off in a prince-like fashion, ultimately stopping at similar-looking humans and randomly talking; occasionally sticking a thumb in Jakob's general direction.

"Despite the lowness in what they're doing, it means nothing if they can't kick my ass." Jakob commented. It was as if he had eyes in the back of his head while he drew. Either that, or something much like now happened before, and Jakob still remembered it.

The Don guy came back, this time with a few of his buddies. All of the rest followed, but kept their distance. Every single human in the cafeteria, save for the school employees, were looking in their general direction; curious as to what's happening.

"So... you're back, I see." Don said in a voice that exerted forced perfectness.

"I'm surprised. You're the only one that still remembers."

"Do you think I'll ever remember the second day?" Don asked.

"Point taken, but don't try to satisfy a grudge in here. I don't want to repeat history in front of the entire school, and I'm sure both of us don't want to get suspended."

The first reason hit Don somewhere, while the second one got him thinking about his actions rather than react to the insult.

"What should we do with his little friend then?" one of the "perfect's" group asked.

"We can use him to get Jakob to comply to my challenge," Don replied. Philip didn't like the sound of that. He felt a hand go over his shoulder in a semi-aggressive way.

What the owner of the hand didn't realize until a few seconds later was that Philip's own hand gripped around the offending hand and crushed it slightly, breaking bones. The cracking was heard across the cafeteria. Seconds later, the scream and thud of the man, who rolled in pain.

Philip spaced out during that time, and didn't realize that everyone was starting at him, including Jakob. His fellow android seemed to be staring in a state of anger and surprise. Jakob then grabbed Philip and pulled him through the crowd, who were all concentrating on the screaming boy with the broken hand.

Jakob threw Philip against a wall when they exited the cafeteria.

"What the hell happened?" Jakob barked.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play stupid. You broke that guy's hand and you didn't even realize it?"

Philip tried to absorb the words. That was unlike himself. He was not one to be violent, and he was definitely not one to go so far as to break someone's hand when they simply placed it on his shoulder. It was probably self-defense in response to the comment Don made, combined with the hand on his shoulder, or it was probably some other reason.

Either way, he broke a guy's hand, and he was going to get in trouble. Philip swore under his breath.

"How tightly did you squeeze?" Jakob asked.

"I don't know. I don't even know what happened after what Don said."

Jakob cursed as well, and started pacing in front of Philip. He then pulled a communicator from his shorts pocket "We'll need to get Jessie over here, ASAP."

"Consider it done," the voice of Orange replied.

Jakob and Philip both entered the cafeteria again, but were immediately glared at by Don and his crew.

"You're going to pay for that." Don said, pointing straight at Philip.

"Easy, Don. It wasn't his fault," Jakob said, "We can get that hand fixed no problem. We just need to-"

He was interrupted by Don swinging a fist. A fight was inevitable. Then came a tough decision: Either disable the attackers quickly, and give Jessie more work, or go through a full-blown fight and explain everything to the vice-principal when he arrives.

Radzinski sometimes understood, but sometimes didn't. Jessie also enjoyed taking care of patients, so Jakob went for the former. Dodging a second punch, Jakob grabbed Don's own hand and pinned him down with his own CQC skills. Jakob had Don pinned down right in front of everyone.

"I don't want a damned fight, for crying out loud! Either calm down or I'll twist farther than humanly possible! Alright? We're getting a doctor here, and she has experience in fixing things like this."

Don's group was reluctant, but everyone calmed down. Jakob still had Don pinned down just in case. Soon, a helicopter was heard. Later, another female robot entered. Instantly recognizable by Jakob and Philip as Jessie, while everyone else had mixed reactions between surprised (the fact that she's a robot), annoyed (since a bunch of robots just arrived and started "invading" the attention circle of the school), and indifferent. (such as most of them, who turned back to their own business after Jakob asked for the humans to remain calm.)

Jakob got close to Don's ear and whispered.

"Accepted, but keep your cool until after school, Agreed?"

No one heard it, except Philip, who was closest. Don simply grunted a comply, and Jakob let him go.

"So, what have we here?" Jessie asked.

"Broken hand. That guy." Jakob replied. He nodded towards Philip slightly, subliminally indicating that he was the cause.

Jessie simply nodded. "Get him to me. We'll see how it is."

"You sure she's able to help out humans?" Philip asked while Jakob and another kid helped the broken-hand boy onto a table. Jessie started to examine the hand.

"She's a pretty famous doctor even before she was in the Cluster." Jakob muttered in response. Philip simply nodded. Jessie's hand turned into some small arm cannon of some kind and enveloped the broken hand in a blue-green light. Jessie then started pinching the hand in certain areas softly while the hand was under the blue light. While she did this, the Vice-Principal came in. Before he could ask what was going on, Jakob was already with him and walking him out of the door again, explaining what's been happening.

Philip was left to get mixed stares from all the humans in the cafeteria. It was definitely unnerving.

---

Philip left to escape the sudden bad air directed toward himself by his formerly fellow students. It was definitely worse to be despised than to be unaware of existence. Philip definitely knew he was despised right now. What was happening to him? Whatever was happening, he would need to ask Jessie about it.

Jakob appeared from around a nearby hallway corner. This time not escorting the vice-principal.

"There's definitely something wrong with you," Jakob said.

"No kidding?" Philip asked, "I just broke someone's freakin' hand"

"Are you always like this?" Jakob asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Before all this crap happened, were you this talkative and aggressive?"

"N... No. I don't remember."

"I guess that explains it all then... This early though...?" Jakob muttered, as he leaned onto a wall beside the door.

"What is it?"

"You're undergoing a state that all artificial beings go through before their so-called deaths: rampancy."

Philip nodded and leaned onto a wall opposite from Jakob. He continued looking at Jakob, intent to learn more on what this "rampancy" is.

"The term originally became popular when it became the main theme throughout some old games. I forget their names, but they were popular. Despite the fact that fully functional AI-based robots like us have been made at the time, the whole subject was highly accurate when it came around."

"But what is it?"

"An artificial intelligence's realization that they are not human, and therefore cannot experience some things that make humans human. Rampancy is basically the consequences of that realization. It usually starts with the Melancholia stage, where the AI discovers itself as simply an AI and becomes depressed. I'm sure you experienced a bit of it while in prison, and when you learned that your... paintball captain... met that terrible fate. I noticed it as well, but I didn't think it was actually the first stage..."

"Okay, so what's the second stage?" Philip asked, a slight impatience in his voice.

"The stage you're in right now, if I know correctly, is known as the Anger stage, and it's in that stage where the robot or AI starts to become... aggressive. It became obvious when you broke the human's hand, but now that I think about it, your "enthusiasm" from that earlier fight might have caused the jump from the first stage to the second."

"Is there any way to stop this?"

"Unfortunately, no. All we can do is make sure things like this don't happen again. Sometime later, you'll reach the Jealousy stage, where you'll function normally, except with a higher degree of... intelligence, and the fact that you're jealous of practically any organic being, since they can do stuff robots can't."

"Is there anything after that?"

"One other stage, in theory, as far as what Jessie knows. The XJ-9 unit is one of the rare cases. In which she knows she ultimately cannot do what humans can do, and not care. Either she knows, or doesn't know. Either way, her AI is built to resemble a human almost perfectly. The only difference is the body used to carry it."

"Has anyone else from the group experienced it?"

"We all have, but no one showed even symptoms of the first stage as early as you did. It's highly likely that the human prison on Cluster Prime would have done that."

"So let me get this straight. This "virus" I currently have is basically theories by a video game company that turn out to be very valid?"

"Exactly. Their ways of creating realistic systems is incredibly disturbing."

"But what about Don Prima?"

"I accepted the challenge, but made the location secret. I should inform Jenny to not interfere. Don has a grudge, and the only way for him to drop it is to either beat me, or I beat him."

Jakob then paced around, then put a hand over his face. Philip knew exactly why: All that's happening now is just wasting time that they could use to save human slaves.

Considering the whole rampancy topic, a lot of things make sense: Why the Wakeman girl goes to school, why the Cluster despise Earth, why their queen is a sadistic tyrant, and basically anything that has to do with the oddity of robots.

A video game company explaining the nature of artificial beings. Now there's something for Philip to think about. He thought about trying to find some of the games they made; see as much as he could as to how they kept to their "theories".

Before he could think further on the subject, Jessie exited the cafeteria. She looked at Jakob, then Philip.

"I kneaded his bones back together and re-established the circulatory. What exactly happened?"

"Rampancy, second stage," Jakob replied, nodding toward Philip.

"Th... This early?" She asked.

"Exactly what I said," Jakob replied, "We'll need to keep watch over him until we can get him back to Time"

"But you have your own subjects to return to," Jessie said, "The rest of us are too busy repairing the ship and helping to clean out the carnage from this morning."

"Phil, what classes do you have?" Jakob asked.

"Chemistry and Math." Philip replied.

"Same as mine, if I remember correctly. I doubt there will be any problem even if I'm not there, since Jenny's in those classes as well."

The bell suddenly rang. Jessie nodded to Jakob, who nodded back, and then walked off. Jakob continued to hang by Philip.

"What?" Philip asked, as the hallways started to fill up with humans.

"I may remember my classes, but I don't remember where they are."

Philip silently walked off with Jakob following. They soon entered what looked like a lab filled with two-seat desk. A bunch of kids were already there. Philip sat at his own seat while Jakob started to make conversation with the teacher of the class. Most likely talking about homework issues and what's been happening since his disappearance. The conversation was heard by no one, since the popular girls at the back were all gossiping. The useless conversations complemented the room with all the other talking humans. At one point, Philip saw Jakob nod towards Philip, and the blur-haired chemistry teacher looked at Philip, then nodded back to Jakob.

The robot girl arrived with his orange-haired friend, and another human, who followed behind the two, seemingly entranced. It was that one human with that net bazooka that shot at Jakob. The teenager in the brown hoody took one look at Jakob and started to glare. It didn't stop him from taking his seat, which was in a desk to Philip's left, and right behind the seat where the robot girl and the orange-red haired kid were sitting at. Jakob sat in front of the robot girl's desk.

The bell rang, indicating the beginning of the third period classes Fortunately, today was an experiment day, guaranteeing that there would be no homework at all. The teacher announced that the Bunsen burner was broken... again. Almost instantly, the robot girl stood up and walked to the front of the class. Her left hand suddenly replaced with a laser gun of some kind. She definitely had something the ARKS didn't have: a mass amount of weaponry on her person, and the ability to annihilate multitudes of contacts effortlessly. Just by being instantly part of a chemistry experiment, Philip found out why she would easily tip the tide for the favor of the ARKS.

Philip couldn't shake off the question: If she was so great as everyone says she is, how come Jakob got her pinned down? It was most likely the fact that Jakob was a master of CQC. Any other way, he wouldn't have stood a chance against Jenny. Everyone else would probably be stronger than Jenny in some way, but ultimately be inferior overall.

Jenny fired a concentrated beam at a vial hanging over the apparently busted Bunsen Burner. The liquids within bubbled almost instantly. Philip didn't really pay attention. The experiment days were only there to add a spark to the otherwise ultimately boring, repetitive life of school. He noticed that a number of the students were occasionally glaring at him, especially the so-called "popular girls".

To get his mind off of the hating humans, he went through the objectives he ultimately came up with for the ARKS, along with the minor objectives. To start, they were to go to Earth and get Jenny to help the ARKS fight the Cluster and bust out all of the human captives on Cluster Prime. In order to do the latter, they would need a ship big enough to carry all of the approximate thousand humans, a number that Time isn't able to do by a long shot. Multiple trips would be too risky, meaning that they would need a relatively big ship to go in, pick up the humans, and get out.

However, such a ship they lacked, and the XJ-9 is currently refusing to join the ARKS, since her joining the ARKS in their mission would endanger over seven billion humans. It didn't take a computer to know how stupid such an action would be for Earth's only efficient defender.

Skyway Patrol is out of the question, as they're a relatively corrupt police force that doesn't really do anything other than provide some form of international military, and jobs for most that don't have any. It's a wonder how they actually managed to disable Time to begin with.

Then there was that Silver Shell character. Highly enigmatic, and the robot girl seemed to be attracted to the relatively giant robot. Despite having the same function, he was not always on-the-ball, and has recently not arrived for a while. He also seemed to be sort of a deep-down coward, from what Philip has seen. The cowardice was something only Philip seemed to notice. All in all, his lack of presence and risk of liability would make him not the best of alternatives.

Humans in general. They were easily out of the question, since pitting them against the Cluster in the hopes of saving other humans would ultimately end up in a human-robot war, and it will end in blood, agony, and suffering. This was a robot-on-robot fight, and humans are the prize, and the rest of the ARKS knew that.

They'd need to come up with some way to get Jenny to join them on their ultimate mission.

To add to their pile of problems, Philip was apparently undergoing the so-called robot illness known as "Rampancy", and the way it's going right now, it's going to cause mass unease throughout the human community. Philip was easily a threat to life, due to his rampancy-induced unpredictability.

Also, Don Prima and Jakob are to fight to settle a grudge once and for all. Jakob seemed to take severe annoyance toward the upper-class bastard, while the latter didn't like Jakob because he was strangely popular with the ladies. It was most likely his "hair". Either way, Don disliked Jakob and picked at him because of the universal bully reason: jealousy.

It was definitely a bad situation, and definitely more than the ARKS could handle. One by one, each one will be complete. It would only be a matter of time... something they ultimately lacked.

---

The Warden sat at his office chair, sorting out assorted files at the main terminal in his office. There was a ring at his titamium-plated door colored the same bold orange popular with Cluster-based buildings.

"Come in," he said. He knew exactly who it was.

The Captain entered.

"Any news on them?"

"They apparently disappeared."

"From..."

"Cluster Prime itself. Our invasion force returned to report a failure, and a mass amount of casualties."

"Sent to Earth?"

"Yes. According to survivors that got back to the ship, they saw the ARKS."

"Anything else?"

"Yes, we managed to identify citizens confirmed to be associated with the ARKS. However, they were also gone."

"Like whom?"

"Citizen 5700, known only as Jessie, Citizen 5503, alias Terrace Jeric, and Retired Citizen 6722, whom has obtained the name of "Orange", I believe. Those are all I managed to identify."

"Who are those three?" the Warden asked.

"Citizen 5700 is the doctor we had established in Health Administration. She disappeared when Slave Subject Seven-Nine-Nine also disappeared. Citizen 5503 was a physical system studies teacher at the High School, while Retired Citizen 6722 is a regular customer at the civilian shooting range near the outskirts. "

"I'm getting the feeling that the ARKS have moved to Earth and have provided the XJ-9 menace with information regarding our abduction forces."

"Also..." the Captain said. The Warden waited, and then nodded. The captain then shook his head and continued. "There were four humans, not including Seven-Nine-Nine, in the last successful abduction run. There were also two humans that have been confirmed to have dealt with Seven-Nine-Nine. However, I doubt those humans had anything to do with the ARKS."

"It doesn't matter now if they did. What's the status of all of them."

"Two of them, dead. Subjects Seven-Nine-Eight and Seven-Nine-Six. Human names: Sal S and Pete M, respectively. The other two are Subjects Eight-Zero-Zero and Seven-Nine-Seven. Human names: Gerald F and Johann Y"

"How about the other associates?"

"Four-Nine-Two and Four-Eight-Four. Human names Hender S and Joel L."

"You're positive that they had nothing to do with the ARKS?"

"The two slave vets were once busted out, but we captured them again and re-circulated them into slavery. The other four were not that badly injured, so Citizen 5700 could've have done anything within the speed that she worked on them, unlike Subject Seven-Nine-Nine, who was most injured."

"Hmm..." the Warden muttered. He stroked his chin, where a steel-plated beard was welded on. "We'll get as much data as we can with what we have so far. But first, report to the Queen regarding the current events, and inform her that we'll need time to think of a plan. After all, they're now on Earth, and therefore under guard by the XJ-9."

"Understood, Warden. I'll report back when I can."

"Take your time, but remember that there's a timeline."

"Of course." the Captain said while leaving.


	11. Chapter 11

-----11

The bell rang, something Philip was anticipating. The only thing interesting that happened during this class was that mid-way, the Bunsen Burner exploded and set fire to the front desk. The XJ-9 unit's laser transformed into a fire extinguisher and solved the problem before anyone could reach the one near the door of the room itself. The more she showed off her abilities, the more it occurred to Philip that the ARKS needed her.

Philip was out of the class in an instant, just to avoid the bustling group of students that despised Philip's guts for what he did at lunch. Jakob was soon with him, most likely because he forgot where his own math class was.

Unlike Chemistry, this class didn't have the Robot Girl or the orange-red haired kid. Only the one in the brown hoody and black mullet. He didn't seem to take interest anymore, which Philip was relieved about. Jakob sat right beside Philip, which was also a relief. If anything should happen, Jakob would be close enough to intervene in case something bad did happen.

In any case, nothing seemed to happen throughout the period, despite Philip being more nervous then ever before. However, before he was made into a robot... or before this rampancy thing was discovered, he felt shy about almost anything... Now, he just didn't even lack self-confidence.

He had slight violent impulses toward those that seemed to be glaring at him, but he managed to hold the violent urges back. Rampancy was definitely a fickle thing.

The bell rang again, indicating the end of school. Philip needed to get out of the school, keep away from humans. Jakob was way ahead of Philip on that, as he grabbed Philip's arm and pulled him quickly towards the nearest school exit.

---

The back door swung open, and the two androids rushed out. Jakob was immediately speaking into the short-wave radio he had strapped under his shirt.

"Get High Hopes over here, we need to get Philip away from the humans."

"Affirmative." Orange replied, "Keep watch over him, I'm on my way."

Jakob nodded and switched it off again. All he needed to do now was keep an eye on Philip. It was going to be a tough assignment... mainly because Don Prima appeared.

"Damn, I was hoping later," Jakob muttered. The way things were going right now, he would have preferred a fight any other time. However, Don seemed hell-bent on the grudge.

His prince-like voice boomed throughout the area, and almost immediately, kids started spreading the word of the potential fight.

"It's after school, like you promised."

"The way things are now, this isn't exactly the best time."

"Too bad. My patience toward you is next to none. We fight right here, right now."

Jakob muttered a curse. He took a quick glance at Philip, who easily showed signs of holding back violent impulses. He needed to beat Don quickly, before Philip lost control. However, it's been two months, and considering that Don was the only one who even remembered Jakob would mean that he'd been taking some kind of course for the next time they meet in combat.

Whatever Don had up his sleeves, it was most likely something Jakob wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of. After all, his burgundy sweatshirt and black inner tee could easily hide almost anything one could stuff in it. It might explain the extremely puffed-out chest... If he had weapons concealed under his shirt anyway.

Examining was not going to get this fight through any quicker, so Jakob tried to take his time, keeping a good proximity to Philip, should he go psycho, but at the same time, keep distance from Don Prima, making him take the first move.

Don Prima anticipated this, and moved cautiously toward Jakob, while the rest of his friends, including the one who had his hand broken by Philip, covered every exit, encompassing the three others in a square-shaped arena.

Jakob could hear High Hopes coming within hearing range. He just needed to keep Philip under control until Orange got close enough. Once Philip was out of there, Jakob could do whatever he wants to the douche bag.

Philip was not having an easy time. The more he stood there, the more disturbed he became. The way things were going, he was definitely going to lose it.

Jakob flipped on the radio again, "Orange, Can you get here any faster?"

"Impossible. Speed at maximum." he replied. Jakob shook his head and flipped it off again.

"Don, think you can wait for a minute or two? Phil needs to get out of here." Jakob said. However, Don made the first move: a right hook toward Jakob's face. This was on school property, but both Jakob and Philip knew that the teachers wouldn't give a damn if it wasn't even in their own classroom, let alone right outside the back of the school.

Jakob, despite his skill in CQC and agility, took the punch head-on. He stepped back a few paces, but regained his footing. He snapped another glance at Philip, who seemed to be okay, considering that he's not ripping any human's head off anyway.

"Of course, you decline. I'm going to make this quick." Jakob growled. It was natural for him to have a short fuse, so he found nothing wrong with his anger.

Next attack Don made, Jakob saw coming. A left hook. Jakob easily dodged the punch and grabbed Don's arm. He shoved his free hand into Don's elbow and threw him onto the ground.

Don flexed his arm, and threw Jakob off with a swing. He obviously has been working out since last time. This was definitely going to take longer than expected. Jakob planted a hand on the ground before he landed and flipped back onto his feet, only to be tackled by Don. Upon landing, Jakob pushed both his feet into Don's chest and shoved him off.

Jakob got back up again, and took another right hook in the face. Jakob jumped back, suddenly hearing everyone laughing. Most likely about the fact that Jakob seemed to be running.

Far from it. Jakob managed to get a glimpse of what Don was going to do next. This time, Jakob was going to finish this fight. Don once again came with a right hook. Jakob grabbed Don's fist and crushed it much like Philip did earlier. Don's scream pierced the laughter, fueling Jakob with adrenaline. Jakob clenched his free fist and threw it into Don't gut. Jakob then roundhouse-kicked Don in the face, sending him sprawling onto the grassy field.

Don got up again. He rubbed his broken hand to ease the pain. He was definitely not through with fighting yet. Jakob couldn't help but respect the fact that Don was very tolerant of the pain now. He definitely has been practicing since Jakob's relatively short absence.

Don came at Jakob again, this time with a jump-kick. Definitely a stupid mistake on Don't part. Jakob caught Don and slammed him into the ground.

The helicopter finally arrived from there. Orange called for Philip, who immediately got onto the helicopter.

"Jakob?" Orange asked. Jakob stepped back in case the downed Don tried to do anything. After a few seconds, Jakob walked to the downed teenager.

"Could we please drop this grudge?" he asked. The sound of the helicopter allowed his voice to be drowned out to all except Don. Don didn't reply. He was alive, but knocked out. "Nevermind then..."

Jakob then ran to High Hopes as well, leaving the other humans to try to look after Don. High Hopes then lifted off and flew back to where Time crashed.

---

The stealth ship took more damage than Philip expected. The entire nose buckled right into the ship, shattering most of the cockpit windshields out of sheer force. The left wing was shredded from blast marks and buckled as well from the impact. The ship itself was in a small crater and partially buried under kicked-up earth within a mountain range. A Skyway patrol vessel remained floating above, apparently waiting for orders to move in. Most likely once again, the paperwork excuse. Even though it would take a while before they actually try anything, the fact that they could still attack them still stood.

What the ARKS would need to do is develop a good relationship with the humans of Earth, thus adding another objective to the big prison break. The vessel currently floating at a safe distance from Time, despite being one of their smaller attack ships, was easily able to carry around five hundred humans at once. In order to carry all of the humans there, they would need two of those ships, plus Time.

Trig and Drawl would easily be able to take control of one of the ships by themselves, leaving their only other pilot, Orange, to pilot Time. They lack a pilot for the third ship. Unless they could find something big enough to carry all of the humans without being so cumbersome that it could risk complete destruction, they would need to get someone to pilot the ship. Skyway Patrol was out of the question, as they're procrastinating wusses.

Perhaps the Robot Girl would be able to find someone with the ability to pilot one of the Skyway Patrol ships. After all, she always had connections with humans and otherwise that had the ability to significantly help her in situations she couldn't win by herself.

The Don Prima ordeal is over now, and Jakob once again has a smeared reputation, while Philip has become a hazard to almost everything with his unpredictable mental "genetic virus" inevitable among all artificial life. However, by the time Philip reaches the third stage, he won't be a threat anymore. More-so, he'd have a higher degree of understanding and intellect once he's through with the Anger stage.

When that happens, however, is unknown.

Philip thought through all of this while he entered the still-functional door behind Jakob. Orange remained with High Hopes, turning it off to save power. Terrace was spotted around the freshly-unearthed front, wearing a welding mask, a belt with a holstered blowtorch, and heat-resistant gloves. He was apparently the mechanic of the ARKS, probably why the ship and helicopter were named after Pink Floyd songs.

Philip liked Pink Floyd as well, but Terrace had a fetish for their music. He always wore headphones blasting any of their songs at the highest volume possible. If he were a human, he would have been deaf within weeks.

Time seemed to suffer absolutely no damage on the inside, save for the obvious destruction on the right wing and nose. The only thing that showed some damage was the cockpit. However, that damage was merely the glass-like material of the cockpit window that smashed inward and littered the entire room with shards and glassy dust.

Trig was unharmed, as Drawl quickly withdrew him from the holo-pedestal before impact. Drawl's visor seemed to glow in the same color as Trig's holographic form, but otherwise remained the same.

As Philip passed by the cockpit, he noted all of the damage and spotted Drawl. He stood with an odd-looking vacuum cleaner, and was clearing up the glass. Jakob called to Philip, who started following again. Jakob took another right, where there was what looked like a hospital room. Jessie was sorting through a cabinet. There were assorted medical supplies thrown all over the ground; supplies for human recovery as well as robotic recovery. They didn't make a serious mess beyond the assorted bottles and materials everywhere. Jessie turned and spotted Jakob.

"What happened?" Jessie asked. Jakob thought for a second, wondering what she's referring to. Philip turned to see Jakob, where he saw it as well.

One of Jakob's glass-visored eyes was cracked, and the area around it was heavily dented. Some human blood was present on it as well. Most likely Don Prima's first punch.

"How bad is it?" Jakob asked after feeling the dent and small blot of blood.

"Not that bad, but definitely noticeable," Jessie said. Jakob reluctantly sat down on the hospital bed while Jessie took a closer look at the damaged eye.

"Damaged glass, dents easily signifying internal damage. We'll need to replace that eye visor completely. Jakob, we'll have to temporarily deactivate you."

Jakob simply nodded. Jessie flipped a switch on the bed and Jakob was suddenly electrocuted. The lifeless metallic body of Jakob remained on the bed while Jessie started to remove plating from Jakob's face.

Philip simply stood, shaken by the sudden "killing" of Jakob and watched as the robotic doctor got to work. Under the plating was assorted, namely frayed wires and dented oil "veins and arteries", along with dented internal plating.

"Philip, you're dismissed. I'll talk to you later."

Philip nodded and left. After walking through the primary corridor, the next room he turned into was his dormitory. He instantly went into sleep mode upon hitting the bed.

The bed itself was far better than the one from the Jail cell. However, even sleeping there still reminded Philip of the horrible taste of the mass amount of gravy. The more Philip thought about it, the more he was disgusted at the mere thought of the sauce. It was definitely a method of torture.

The taste of the gravy still lingered on Philip's mind. But of all humans, why him? There was no way that the Cluster would be resourceful enough than to have so much gravy to do the exact same thing to every other human... every day. It almost made him think that they meant to give only him the gravy. He had questions. Questions he doubted Jessie would know the answer to. But what if the Cluster really were that resourceful?

He woke up upon the door knocking. He would have to ask the one behind the Human slavery for all the answers. After all, he wouldn't know what would be happening throughout the whole prison without his knowing anyway. The "Warden", as he occasionally heard when he was first mining. A "Warden" was known as the overseer of a prison, so obviously the Warden of a Prison would be the one to ask in regards to taking care of its "tenants".

Jessie entered. Philip sat up.

"How's Jakob?"

"I can tell you're unused to my methods. Don't be alarmed. Jakob's not dead.

"More like those things Doctors do to people before operation."

"Yeah, exactly like that."

Philip nodded. "So what did you want to talk to be about?"

"This whole Rampancy business. It's never happened this early in a robot's life. It always happens within the first five months or longer, not under five days."

"What if it's the fact that I was made into a robot?"

"Impossible. Jakob was made the same way as I did with you. He didn't undergo rampancy as early as you did."

"So what am I supposed to guess?"

"What did they do to you when you were in prison? I want to know everything. What they fed you, your roommates, who the other people were that were with you, what you did in the shifts, everything."

Philip had to recall that living hell again. Jessie was not really letting him drop the horrible experience that nearly cost him his sanity.

"When I was thrown in the truck, there were four humans, not including myself."

"The girl, Sal, was not among them, considering you didn't know."

"Yeah. There were three I actually did know before I was abducted. All three were paintball players on the team I was going to play against if not for the attack."

"Names?"

"Johann, Pete, and Gerald."

"Which one was killed before the discovery?"

"Pete."

"Continue then."

"Anyway, the fourth one was a man named Hender. He looked like a war veteran. Still had campaign medals. Probably from World War R, or something like that."

"Hender... Hmm..."

"What is it?"

"Thought I heard the name before. I thought it would be something else. Guess I was wrong. Were any of them with you in your cell?"

"No, they completely isolated me. I wasn't able to start conversation."

"Perhaps food might have done something. What did they feed you?"

"It was something most likely used for torture methods."

Jessie looked confused. Despite her visor resembling sun shades, curiosity was definitely in her eyes.

"Think chicken... I think it was chicken, except laden to the rim of the friggin' bowl with gravy. Every time they threw it in, gravy spilled out, spreading the stench throughout the cell."

"You don't like gravy?"

"I didn't mind it, but the sheer amount they put in it. It was as if they were trying to turn me insane with the stench and taste. The gravy itself wasn't even that good. I had to dump it in the toilet to try and remove the smell."

"Hm... Abuse by handler... Isolation... Definitely causes for rampancy. Couldn't have been just that. Anything else that you might find odd?"

"I don't know. It was all normal until the whole Ice Cream shift. When they killed Pete, I just snapped. I didn't even know him at all. Only got to mingle with him on the way to the shift."

"Death of a potential friend was never recorded as a cause for rampancy... Or anything in that matter. We'll have to investigate this in greater detail later."

"What do you mean?"

"You've been sleeping for fourteen hours. It's morning now. A few hours before school. I'll have to get status reports from everyone else and get Jakob back online. Can I trust you to not do anything radical on your way to school?"

Jessie reminded Philip of his mother at that point. He needed to pay his home a visit. See if they're back. If they're not there, then something would be seriously wrong.

Jessie left and walked toward the hospital room, Her red, steel hair topped by a nurse's hat didn't even bob organically. It disturbed Philip in a sense. She seemed to take charge and talk as if she knew everything. Perhaps she did. But the way she expresses it seemed to bother Philip in a way. It never occurred to him until now.

For now, Philip would have to concentrate on going to his original home and see if his parents are back. He climbed over the mountain that separated Time from the plains and many roads that led to Tremorton. He looked on into the night, to watch Downtown remain as unnecessarily bright as ever. Philip slowly climbed down. He had hours, easily enough time to run to Tremorton and back, let alone run there, check his home, and then go to school.

After school, he'll hit the teenager's hang-out spot "Mezmers". He'll then have a meal capable of wiping all thoughts of gravy.


	12. Chapter 12

-----12

Philip opened the door to his parents' house. It was dark as last time, except darker due to the fact that it was early morning. The sun didn't even rise yet.

It was still as empty as ever. Even after a thorough search, he didn't even spot anything human. Everything even acquired a fresh, though thin layer of dust.

It didn't make sense. Something was definitely wrong. Philip even checked his Parents' own room, and they weren't there.

It was almost as if they were kidnapped. If they were, no human would be able to take them both and leave without a trace. The only exceptions are if it's a Mafia-like gang, or if the Cluster was more clever in their kidnappings than the ARKS thought.

If it was the former, then that would add another objective to the ARKS mission. The results would include an improved society, humanity's greater confidence toward the ARKS, and it would take a big plateful off of Jenny's crime-fighting hands.

If it was the latter... then it wouldn't make much difference. After all, the ultimate goal is to bust out every human from the Cluster's iron grip. It was most likely the latter, as Philip couldn't think of any reason why a human gang would want to kidnap his parents of all people. They were never anyone special. In the sense of any other Average Joe, they never will. The unfortunate semi-true fact that spawned with greed.

Philip shook his head and left, locking the door behind him again. He then made his way toward the school. He seemed to have spent longer at his house than he expected.

He walked onto the pavement, his dull gray steel exoskeleton shone slightly with the morning sun glinting over the horizon. Jakob soon arrived as well. They were the first people to arrive. Jakob and Philip nodded a greeting to each other and sat down beside the doors.

"What time is it?" Philip asked.

"Six thirty-eight, morning."

"When did school start... half-past eight?"

"Yeah."

"Two hours to kill."

The first hour was silent. Then the humans started to flock to their legally-bound education building. Amongst the early birds was Jenny, who was followed by the orange-red-haired kid yet again. Then again, they were best friends, so it's hardly surprising. No life form, be it natural or artificial, would hang around their friends for repeated days on end. Cravings for being alone will always arise.

Then again, when Philip thinks about the past, humanity is unpredictable, and anything can happen. Jenny and her friend spotted the robotic duo and walked toward them. The short, black-haired hoody-donned boy also arrived... Sheldon, was it?

Philip remembered, and wondered if Jakob did as well. Shelden and he used to be partners for Workshop, mainly because Philip never liked partner jobs and he ended up with the last choice, thanks to the ignorant teacher with gigantic lens-equipped glasses. Sheldon was a good kid, but since the Robot Girl arrived there one morning, Philip couldn't help but notice that Sheldon seemed to be entranced every time the robot girl was around.

Sheldon told the story to Philip... twice. Something Sheldon never seemed to do unless asked to repeat himself. The three douchebags that occasionally pestered them regarding Shop homework decided to pick on Sheldon while Philip was at the bathroom. The robot girl apparently re-arranged their sockets and made them eat their own homework like the dogs they are.

It always strikes Philip as odd though. Humans and anything not human were never naturally meant to be, especially if the non-human was a robot. Then again, there are cultural groups out there that have so-called "strange" and "unfamiliar" fantasies that either weirded-out, or simply grossed-out the average population. Philip never cared though. If they didn't affect him directly, it's nothing he should worry about.

The thing that sickened him more was the fact that there were others that acted the exact opposite, irregardless if they weren't even talked to by one of the "unfamiliar" humans.

Throughout this philosophical thinking, Philip missed over half of the conversation. Jakob seemed to be shocked, in a sense. Sheldon and Orange-Red-Hair seemed to glare at Jakob. Jenny seemed disappointed in general.

"Sorry, I spaced out." Philip said as Jakob turned toward his counterpart, "What happened?"

"What happened is that your violent friend sent Don Prima to the hospital." Sheldon replied. Anger was present, but minimal at that.

"The hospital?"

Philip felt horrible now. The only reason Jakob actually did such injury was because he was in a hurry, and he was in a hurry because of Philip. Any other situation, Jakob would have taken his time and leave Don standing with bruises.

From what the others told Philip, Jakob inflicted a fractured jaw, multiple broken bones in the right hand, lacerations in the stomach, and minor internal damage. Not only that, but the smack-down that knocked Don Prima out dislocated his left shoulder and sent him into a coma. Nothing a good doctor couldn't fix, but it was definitely serious. Don Prima would be out of the coma in a predicted four weeks. He would recover even faster if Jessie would work the same "magic" on him like the first kid. She probably would.

Four weeks... Don Prima is a world-respected human, considering his parties are "World-famous." It would definitely hurt the ARKS' reputation if it became hugely apparent that one of their key members severely injured a high-class human.

This could complicate things. The worst of it all: Philip is the primary cause.

---

Cluster Prime. A prime metaphor of the invention known to human girls as "makeup". On the outside, it looked beautiful, but easily artificial. On the underside, it's commonly dark, not so pretty, and holds secrets even the mask itself doesn't even know.

The prime example: the Behind-the-Scenes district led by the Warden. The queen, though actually having great power, was ultimately a figurehead. The Warden was the real leader behind the Cluster, or more precisely, the army it's equipped with.

The Warden lived through World War R and many other conflicts, with the blood of many on his hands and the experience of all combat chiseling his titanium shell. He had seen all, and he is a quick thinker. Leadership was something he will never lack. However, Vexus ruled the Cluster for over two thousand years. If not for the fact that her daughter Vega existed, the next one to take the throne would be the Warden himself.

He never liked Vexas, despite his never-fading obedience. Her leadership skills sucked and she had even worse charisma. All she is is a bag of taunts obsessed with the XJ-9 menace's cooperation with the Cluster. Even the Warden knew that the robot girl would never join the Cluster, no matter how much she's battered.

A foolish queen is far worse than no queen at all, even the Warden knew that. For reasons even he could not fathom, the public loved her. If he would have to remove her, it would have to be flawlessly, without incident, and followed by his instigation of ruling the Cluster completely.

It would be a plan of tremendous complication. The simplest solution would be something quite obvious:

Terminate the ARKS, and XJ-9 with them.

He would have to get this plan set up first. The XJ-9 is incredibly dangerous, even to Vexas, let alone the Warden. The ARKS are not as much of a threat, but they comprise of specialists. From what he knew of reports from his soldiers, the Retired one is a crackshot with any sniper rifle, and a veteran from World War R, able to kill a robotic squirrel hiding in a tree from across the park in Epsilon, the biggest park on Cluster Prime.

Citizen 5700, "Jessie" is a medical official well-known around many planets for her skills with robots and organic beings alike. The physical systems education teacher is one whom the Warden doesn't know about yet.

As the Warden saw the Captain enter his office again, he knew that was soon to change.

"Any news on the third citizen?"

"He's known to the staff of CP High School as Terrace Jeric." the Captain replied, looking through his memory banks quickly.

"Okay then, who is this Terrace?"

"He used to be a military trainer throughout the aftermath of World War R. Highly skilled in firearms and explosives, from when I looked through the military records."

"What else?"

"He also has a camouflage generator, something we only equip to our Stealth units. He's also known to be a bit of a grease monkey and mechanic prior and even during his military years."

"Gifted multi-tasking character, isn't he?"

"He quit the army soon after, making a comment that "World War R should remain the last war ever." He then went to CP High to teach the next generation, also making a comment that "the young ones should be taught what is right, and what is right is that wars should never happen again."

"Sounds like a pacifist."

"Hardly, by reports, he is the one who currently has the most kills against our forces out of all the ones we have seen."

"Speaking of... How many have we seen? Remind me."

"Not counting Seven-Nine-Nine, we have seen four."

"So that's Terrace, Jessie, the sniper called "Orange". Who's the last one?"

"We managed to get photographic evidence by a good Samaritan. There's no doubt about it."

"About what?"

"It's Jakob, sir."

"Jakob..." the Warden knew the name well. the Jakob fellow used to be an associate of the XJ-9, Embarrassing the Warden's invasion squads a few weeks ago with a can of spray paint and a Bunsen burner. Despite the cleverness, most of the surviving soldiers that heard of the maneuver made the Warden and the survivors that were involved laughing stocks back at the HQ.

"He's associated with the ARKS."

"That news goes to no one. The only one to be informed should be the Queen and the Queen only. Do you understand?" the Warden growled. The Captain could easily see that he pushed one of the Warden's forbidden buttons. He quickly nodded and ran out.

Of all people, that violent bastard, the Warden thought. This was going to complicate things. He knew what Jakob was capable of. That combined with the efforts of the ARKS and the fact that he's reunited with the XJ-9 made the Warden's ultimate goal appear even more difficult than it already is.

He'd have to think carefully, and target carefully. The future of the Cluster as a power throughout the galaxy rested on his shoulders.

Remove ARKS from existence, terminate XJ-9. If successful, the Warden would make himself a big name throughout Cluster Prime and more. It would easily make him a flawless leader should the Queen and her daughter get terminated by well-planned, yet still unknown means.

He always has good luck with starting on the harder jobs, so he began to formulate plans to kill the threats still residing on Earth. It would take a while, but the price of time paid would be nothing compared to the result.


	13. Chapter 13

-----13

Everyone seemed to glare at the duo as school was about to start. More Jakob than anything, but Jakob could tell that they were despising robots even more because of the short-term danger they seemed to present. Then again, injuries that could heal with time are never worse than life-long slavery or something as unstoppable as death itself.

Humans seemed to not think of the long-term effects. If they did, they didn't seem to respect it. Ungrateful meatbags... Jakob grimaced.

Classes were same as usual. Yesterday was Thursday, but this was Friday. Weekend was coming, meaning that Jakob and Philip would soon have to catch up on their missed work. Jakob most likely worked on his on his free time, but Philip didn't even start.

The only thing about the classes were that Philip seemed to be noticed; something he never experienced. He didn't like it. It felt like being a celebrity, except mild-mannered, and not insane. Philip was never a fan of celebrities, let alone the fact that he apparently is one now.

If only the paintball game had gone as planned... if only the Cluster didn't attack on that day... If only the Cluster didn't have to get formed...

If only the Humans didn't despise the robots for being different, causing those beyond rampancy to band together as a species. If only World War R never happened.

What was he thinking? putting blame on things that already passed? Hoping that it was different in a futile effort. Rampancy is a fickle thing. If only this Anger stage would get by sooner. He'd then be mentally stable, so he could think more clearly without distractions.

Too late, Lunch time already. Philip sat with Jakob like usual. Everyone stayed away from them, while shooting mean glares.

"I doubt saying sorry would even change anything." Philip muttered.

"There's no way I'd apologize to the one who started it. Besides, he wanted to fight me without hesitation, so I fought back. It's only instinct." Jakob replied as he drew in some sketchbook. Philip couldn't help but marvel at the realistic shading over a wide assortment of familiar characters to those that look nothing like anything any human could have ever seen.

"What got you into drawing?" Philip asked.

"Nothing, really. I just like it."

"No actual, deep reason?"

"Nope. Definitely something you don't see in movies, eh?" Jakob asked as he turned back to his drawing.

"I guess not." Philip muttered as he got back to drinking the motor oil Jakob brought. Philip slowly grew a taste for the black sludge. It didn't seem to be bad for him. Although if he was a human, it would kill him within minutes.

Well, one objective down. Another few to go, plus a few more. this was definitely something the ARKS never expected, nor appreciated.

Soon, the next classes came. It was more Deja vu than anything, except only slightly different lessons, and the fact that people occasionally threw glares at the duo. Even the robot girl, the only one actually able to sympathize with them, joined in the glaring. It was hard to figure out why she would be like that. Could be be another case of Rampancy?

Impossible. From what they knew, the XJ-9 unit was not mistreated by handlers, only bullied by those who were too stupid to know better than to not tolerate those of a different species. Then again, thinking of it that way turns "impossible" to "probable". They would have to consult her creator.

Meanwhile, Philip needed to see something. The bell soon rang, indicating the end of the school day. They both left and parted ways. They would later meet up again at Time.

Jakob walked to a direction Philip never expected Jakob to go. He figured that Jakob would keep Philip informed about what he's going to be doing and moved out as well. After all, Philip is going to be doing the same thing, except a different direction.

Where Philip walked to was the Paintball place that his team was last at before the Cluster attacked and Philip was pulled into this whole mess.

He stood in the ruined cottage. Paintball equipment was scattered everywhere with differing levels of damage, dry paint splattered across what was left of the Paintball storage vats, and corpses remained. It was as if Paintball was a dying sport. Not even the authorities knew about the destruction that took place here.

He recognized the body of the guy who always stood at the counter. His blood was already at the darkest shade of red that blood could possibly turn to, and the bugs were already decomposing the dead. Same thing with all of the Paintball players that still lay outside the two doors.

Once Philip got back, he'd have to inform someone about this. He'll have to tell Jakob at least.

After looking throughout the corpses, he noticed that one was missing. There were five altogether that were abducted, but from the overall count, six were missing.

Philip noticed disturbed ground around where the missing person would have been. Philip followed the crushed grass, snapped trigs, trudged-around dirt, and damaged foliage until he finally came across another body. It was Travis, who was part of Philip's group. After a quick check for pulse, the kid was confirmed to be dead as well. Philip cursed under his breath. Screams for help were a lot like trees falling in forests. They make sound, but it never gets anywhere, and no one hears it.

Philip shook his head again, and closed the already-opened eyes of the dead paintball player. He then left. He couldn't bear the sight of his dead friends. The only friends he had before this damned ordeal.

---

"You again. I heard about what you did."

"He asked for it, trust me."

"I never liked egotistical people, but that alone does not entitle someone to be sent to the hospital for four weeks."

"For your information, my friend Philip..."

"What do your "friends" have to do with you critically injuring a human?"

"...undergoing Rampancy,"

"I don't ca- Wait... Rampancy?"

"Yes, and he's currently in the Anger stage."

"Explain."

Jakob explained the entire situation during the fight to Dr. Wakeman, who seemed to know what Rampancy is very well. After all, she sent Jenny to school. Not only was it out of her wishes to become "human", but it was also a way to reduce the fatal risks of Rampancy when it comes from her.

"Your friend, where is he?"

"He went off on his own, after reassuring me that he wouldn't get close to any humans. He'll make his way back to our ship as well."

"I'd like to speak with him in that case."

"You're better off coming with me anyway. We could use a second mechanic to get Time back in working order."

"I'll call Jenny. She can help as well."

"Might as well. We'll need your help anyway."

Jakob nodded his head and saluted a goodbye to Dr. Wakeman, who remained standing at her doorstep, most likely thinking about the idea of Rampancy.

Jakob would have to get to Time. He moved into a jog and passed a couple of blocks before passing by Mezmer's. Jakob stopped, thought for a moment, and then entered. He was craving a Sundae. Considering the past events, what was the worst that could happen?

The worst was that everyone, even Mezmer, despised Jakob. Jenny, her orange-red-haired friend, and that Sheldon fellow were the only ones that weren't glaring. They took their slice of the anger cake already. Jakob already passed his Rampancy, but he still had a short fuse. He got a little tired of the stupid, shallow, one-sided opinions.

"It's been a freakin' day. Why do you guys still hold a grudge against me, just because I badly hurt a guy who's ultimately a jackass?"

No one responded. It was like looking at a graveyard, except all the stones were faces, still keeping their form. Jakob sighed; it was futile to get the facts in their instinct-based minds.

"I come here primarily to inform you guys that the bloody Cluster is becoming more and more clever and that you guys don't yet realize it. Don Prima still held a grudge against me for two freakin' months just because of the fact that I was the new kid. Now my reputation is crap because of all this shallow, one-sided favoritism. Great work on making my day!" Jakob finally said while storming out.

He wanted to call them every insult in the book, or even threaten them into fear rather than anger, but that would just terrify them to the point where it would just simply be pointless. Jakob despised humanity, despite being human once himself. He despised the ones who don't think most of all.

Jakob grumbled on the way to the mountain range outside of the city, where Time still lay. On the way, he calmed down slowly. By the time he got to the mountains, he forgot that the events that conspired ever happened. Exercise was definitely a way to assuage one's anger.

Jakob arrived to see some Skyway Patrol soldiers trying to break open the side door, which was closed.

"Excuse me, what are you guys doing?"

"Alien invaders. We got the order to apprehend them." the Lieutenant replied. "I'm assuming you're one of them, correct?"

Jakob knew that if he said "yes", he'd get arrested. He just simply replied in punching the El-Tee in the face, knocking him out cold. Once they got the paperwork signed, there was no other way to stop the corrupt Planetary Police.

Before the other three soldiers could get their weapons, Jakob already took down all three via CQC. He then grabbed the radio of the leading soldier and called into it.

"Is anyone there?"

"Who is this?"

"This is Jakob. You know, Semi-Threat Seven? Why the hell did you try to arrest my allies?"

"They are alien invaders and we have been given orders to apprehend them."

"State your sources." Jakob barked.

There was no response.

"I thought not. Pick up your dudes and refrain doing anything just as stupid. Give us some time, and we'll be out of here. Do you understand me?"

"Fine." the response finally came. The Skyway Patrol cruiser patrolling the mountain ranges and covering the area around Time flew down and dropped an elevator platform. Jakob dropped the unconscious bodies of the Skyway Patrol officers along with their equipment. As the ship left, Jakob shook his head. Today was definitely a day of stupidity, and he was getting sick of it.

At least it'll be over once Jakob gets some sleep. Clear his head, re-new his patience with humanity.

But where was Philip? Obviously if he was there, Skyway Patrol would ask why he was there, and in a best-case scenario, they could escape with minor injuries. Worst-case: death of four soldiers.

Jakob cursed under his breath, and climbed up the mountain beside the crash site. He needed to find Philip.

---

Philip was still in the forest, on his way back to Time. By the time he exited, he found himself nearby Tremorton anyway. He took a wrong turn.

It became worse when Don Prima's posse arrived. Why they were there or how they knew where Philip was is completely unknown. The one whose hand Philip crushed was there as well. Jessie's repair work was definitely something to respect, as the kid was pounding his fists together without so much as wincing.

By the time he saw that others had things like pipes or aluminum bats, he knew why they were there. They wanted to scrap.

Deep down, he wanted to run. He could easily outrun the pigs. However, he could not bring himself to do his deep-down desires. Before any of them could take a swing, Philip shot to the right and grabbed a stick off of a dead tree. The stick itself was more a branch than anything. Good reach, high durability, and no signs of rotting yet. If anything, Nature will always come out on top.

That was when the group of rich boys attacked. Philip should have brought a camera, so he could take a picture of before and after, so he could laugh at the changes he'd pull off on them.

One took a swing with his bat. Philip ducked to avoid and swept around knee-height with the branch. The force of the blow could easily break a leg when it hits in the right place.

Said right place would be the first attacker's knee, which buckled and let our a sharp snap, followed by the agony-laden scream of the affected human. Bloodlust filled Philip's eyes.

Unlike Jakob, Philip was not that skilled in CQC, so his moves were predictable, not so fast and relentless. The branch didn't help because of its bulkiness. The sheer power sent the first attacker to the ground, shrieking in agony.


	14. Chapter 14

-----14

Jakob definitely heard it, and he found out where it came from. Within seconds, Jakob spotted the fray as the other attackers backed off to try to catch Philip off-guard. Jakob burst into a mad sprint and jump-kicked Philip in the side of the head. The branch was thrown out of reach and Philip was knocked unconscious almost instantly.

Jakob cursed yet again. All this happening in one day. He couldn't take it. Philip's Rampancy, Skyway Patrol screwing around, humanity despising them because of a deep-down disrespectful idiot, and the fact that life could be snuffed out without a care in the rest of the universe while they dawdled.

"You guys had best get out of here, It's not safe to be around Phil right now." Jakob said as he helped the others lift up the one with the broken leg. "You seriously need to get that looked at."

"What, you mean like Don?" the kid retorted.

"He had every chance to back off, but he didn't. He made his choice, and it resulted in me making the obvious choice of taking him down using any means necessary. It wouldn't have happened if you guys were tolerant for us. Get out of here and mention this to no one."

The one with the broken leg grunted a reply, while the others simply nodded. Maybe they realised that bringing word around this would only cause more complications than benefits. There was nothing to sue the ARKS for, anyway. Jakob picked up Philip's body and carried it back to Time. Philip was their best tactician, and he was out of commission. Jessie and the others are busy trying to repair Time, which left Jakob to try to get human relations stable.

He was definitely not doing a good job at that either. If anything, he would need to keep calm; something he was never good at. The relations with the people they're trying to help was definitely on bad terms. It would take some time and some good, well-used time to think things over.

Jakob was a quick thinker when it came to combat, but for planning, he needed Philip more than ever. However, Philip was out of the question.

Might as well regroup with the rest of the ARKS and try to figure something out within this fog of confusion. Jakob got through the slightly damaged door and entered the ship. He rested Philip into his dormitory before going to the hospital room.

Jessie was there, as usual.

"Jakob, what took you so long?"

"Multiple things happened." Jakob said. He then gave his report on the day. The kids hated their guts because of the fight with Don Prima, Jakob and Philip separating after school, Jakob's conversation with Dr. Wakeman, and the intervention in the fight between Philip and Don Prima's remaining "loyalists".

"This is very serious indeed. What damage did Philip inflict?"

"Broken leg. Would be hard to explain when they go home."

"You do realize that our goal is ultimately to get all of the human slaves off of Cluster Prime, right?"

"Yeah. Considering there are about a thousand or more, Time won't be able to carry them all at once."

"Which means we'll need to rely on the Humans in order to supply us with ships that can carry that many. The way things are going right now, we're going to end up very much alone in this ordeal."

"I know. They're idiots, however. They don't realize how pointless their unnecessary grudges are. I honestly don't get it."

"I guess it's just one of those human qualities robots tend to discard when we get through Rampancy. I don't understand fully, so that's my guess.

"Where are the others?"

"Terrace is working on the engine, while Drawl and Trig are replacing the windows."

"Alright. Philip's at his dorm. I had to take him down, so he might be damaged."

"Might as well leave him in there. We can't risk letting him exit the ship at all for now."

Jakob nodded and left. Jessie sat down and pulled a terminal from a wall. She checked the hard drive to see if it was damaged, and appeared satisfied that it wasn't.

---

"Warden?"

"Yes?"

"I informed the Queen."

"What did she say?"

"She ordered another attack on Earth."

"If it's another attempt to assimilate the XJ-9 unit, I will kill her myself."

"She apparently has a vendetta with the ARKS. She probably knows that Jakob is somehow involved."

"Did you tell her?"

"No, but she seemed to know anyway."

"Hmm... So long as she doesn't squander my soldiers toward her futile efforts, I'll be fine with another attack. Round up as many squads as you see fit."

"Yes, Warden."


	15. Chapter 15

-----15

A... typewriter.

Philip was sitting in front of one. A blank sheet of paper was already fed inside, ready for someone to fill it.

Everywhere else was all black, so Philip walked to the typewriter. It was most likely some kind of dream-state. The last thing he remembered was getting kicked from the right by some strong force.

Philip sat down in front of the typewriter, and placed his fingertips in a common formation over the keys. After five minutes of thinking, he just kept typing one word over and over: Damn.

He was frustrated, it was usually his fault for choosing to be angry, but this time, he couldn't control it. This Rampancy subject becomes more and more real to Philip the longer he goes through it.

He woke up again. The taste of gravy still remained. He forgot to have something to eat to get rid of it. The thoughts of trying to find survivors at the Paintball course took over during school.

Then those bastard humans with their petty grudges came around with weapons. It was difficult to comprehend, but the fact that they were very open about it is starting to make Philip think if there actually was a gang somewhere in Tremorton. It would be a possibility as to why his parents are missing in the first place.

He was in a dorm room aboard Time. Jakob probably found him.

Jakob passed by the room, and noticed that Philip was awake. Jakob entered with a fury.

"What the hell were you doing?" He barked.

"What?"

"You got into a friggin' fight, and injured another kid. You nearly popped his kneecap this time."

"How'd I end up here then?"

"I took you down myself, then I got them to forget about this one. Can't trust them to do either, to be honest. Point is: I'm getting the feeling that you compromised the mission."

Philip was silent.

"I'd keep you contained here, but that would just make your Rampancy worse. The only way we can get through this is by allowing you to continue this way. Bad news: It'll make the humans hate us even more, which would pass on to the XJ-9."

"So what, my well-being is more important than human life?"

"I never liked humans, so in my case, it wouldn't sound cruel. In the case of just about everyone else, you're right, that sounds cruel. But in the long run, your well-being will preserve more human life. After all, we need to bust the slaves out, and we can't do it without a naturally tactical mind like yours."

"So what, none of you can do the same?"

"Not at such a level as you. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to help Terrace fix up a door and the starboard wing."

Philip fell asleep again as Jakob locked the door behind him. The dream with the typewriter came again. Except this time, Philip was randomly typing a reminder for the objectives.

---

"Four ships?"

"Is something wrong, Warden?"

"Yes, Captain. Are you sure this is all that's able to go on this stupid Queen-ordered mission? ... Hm. I personally would prefer that she fight XJ-9 herself while we do what we were supposed to do before this "Get the damned robot girl" crap."

"You're in a bad mood right now, Warden. Try to keep it low."

"Thanks, Captain... I just can't stand her arrogance. It's impossible to get her to join and she should know it more than anyone else. Even that one plan that fool Smytus pulled off with that Mind Control device was foiled by vomit. Freakin' vomit! Do you not realize how disturbingly humiliating that is?"

"Yes, Warden. I know."

"Speak of the devil, here comes the son-of-a-fool."

Captain Smytus was three times taller and twice as intimidating as both the Warden and the Captain, but they both knew the truth that Smytus was an idiot. Even more so than the Queen. Smytus merely walked past them without even a glance.

"Then there's that old guy. Despite his many failures, his gadgets do actually work." the Captain continued.

"Krackus. He does a good job for functioning things. He just needs to work on their durability."

"Speak of the devil again."

The mustached robot rolled passed the two on a small wheel that served as his "feet".

"Two in one go. I think we should stop talking about others behind their backs.

"Agreed. Get to your ship. I think I'll go to Earth as well."

"See you there, Warden."


	16. Chapter 16

-----16

Philip awoke to a distant explosion.

He shot a glance out of the window to see Jessie run past. Philip ran up to the door and started rapping his fist.

"What's happening?"

Jakob came around, and just so happened to hear Philip. Jakob opened the door.

"Tremorton's under attack. Perfect chance for you to vent your aggression, eh?" Jakob replied, tossing Philip a can of motor oil.

After downing the drink, Philip followed Jakob, who bounded down the corridor to the small hangar, where High Hopes still remained. The chopper was already active and ready to lift off. Orange, Jessie, and Terrace were also aboard. Jakob and Philip strapped themselves in as the helicopter started to leave. Terrace was on the turret.

"Remember, Orange, keep it steady."

"Phil, do you have any plans?"

"Well, I'd recommend that Terrace keep with the turret, but we'll also need a sniper or two helping to cover the civilians as they evacuate the attacked area."

"Jessie and I can handle the evacuation. Orange can't leave his post. That leaves you as our only option for a sniper." Jakob looked to Orange, who simply pointed to the weapon rack to the right of the cockpit door. On it was Jakob's FAMAS-like rifle, along with an old TAC-50 sniper rifle. It was commonly used by the Canadian soldiers during the early 21st century. Five shots per magazine, bolt-action, still the rifle that holds the record for the longest-range kill in human history.

"Extra rounds in the pouch beside the TAC," Orange said. Philip grasped the rifle, surprised on how light it is. Philip also grabbed the pouch and got close to the door outside. A building stood over the park, where assorted Cluster Soldiers were sprawled and firing upon the humans.

The robot girl was also there, but she was having troubles with the sheer numbers.

"There, drop me off there." Philip said, pointing to a high building. Orange piloted High Hopes close enough for Philip to jump onto the roof safely, which is what he did.

Philip rolled as he landed to prevent any hydraulic damage. He then got to the edge and parapet and started to examine the sniper rifle to get a feel for how it works.

Philip then swung the long-barreled rifle to point down into the park. The rifle was much heavier than a paintball gun, but it can't be that different, can it?

One shot, and the recoil shocked Philip a little. A Cluster Soldier took the round and his head exploded in a shower of oil. the .408 caliber round, though not as destructive as a .50 caliber round, did just as well.

Terrace in the turret fired down upon other soldiers while Philip retracted the bolt, discarding the spent casing, and took aim again. Philip saw Jakob jump out from High Hopes with Jessie in his arms.

Jakob was most likely experienced in jumping from such great heights. Otherwise he wouldn't be so stupid as to jump such a distance from that height. Jakob landed in the same way, but possessed far greater agility than Philip, as he rolled with Jessie in his arms.

Jessie had a rifle of her own. It looked like a shotgun of some kind. Jakob had his own rifle.

"Phil". Jakob said into some radio, which ringed into Philip's ear.

"Yeah?"

"Look sharp. I counted four ships on the way down here. Try to get the Robot Girl's attention. Have her target the ships only."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know, nor do I care. We're going to be busy on ground level as it is. There are a lot of civilians under fire."

After switching off the COMM channel, Philip cursed under his breath. He finished off his clip and reloaded the sniper rifle. He then got into cover and turned to the sky, trying to spot the robot girl.

She saw Philip beckoning her to see him. Reluctantly, she landed onto the roof.

"We're going to take care of the ground forces. Concentrate on the ships." Philip said. Jenny just simply nodded and flew up toward the nearest ship. Philip then got into sniping position again and continued taking shots at Cluster soldiers.

---

"The ARKS are here. It's confirmed..." the Warden muttered under his breath.

"We caught visuals of the infamous Jakob, along with "Jessie", "Terrace Yoral", and "Orange". There's another confirmed target as well."

"Who?"

"Seven-Nine-Nine."

The Warden hummed for a moment. Before he could think of a plan, the ship rocked from some powerful impact.

"What the hell was that?"

"The XJ-9! She's attacking us!" a Cluster soldier screamed.

"Clever bastards." The Warden muttered. The ARKS got Jenny to attack their ships while they slaughtered the ground soldiers. Teamwork at its finest.

"All troops, repel the boarder! Get the other ships to send us reinforcements." The Warden barked before grabbed the Captain and pulled him into a corridor outside of the bridge.

"When worst comes to worst, get to the Evac Stealth Fighter. The last thing I want is to lose you." The Warden said.

"I appreciate your concern, sir, but you're more important. If need be, I'll self-destruct if it'll impede the robot girl getting to you." The Captain replied.

The Warden chuckled. "Good to hear it, but that's not going to happen," The Warden flipped open a weapon locker and grabbed two pule rifles. He tossed one to the Captain along with two extra clips.

"Lets kill ourselves a bolt-bag."

---

The ship received heavy damage already by the first barrage of countless missiles. Laser fire rained down upon the Robot Girl, who either dodged or deflected them with relative ease.

High Hopes and Jakob's CQC expertise made the ground forces literally nothing, especially with Philip's refreshed rifle-wielding capability, let alone sniping.

Which is why Philip took the liberty to take pot shots at the Cluster Soldiers shooting down at the XJ-9. He soon ran out of shots altogether.

"I'm out." Philip said into the communicator strapped to his shoulder.

"On my way." Orange's voice replied.

High Hopes hovered down to the rooftop. Philip jumped and hefted himself inside.

"Get me aboard that ship." Terrace said.

"Will be difficult. Multiple contacts. No apparent end of suppressing fire."

"Then let me make some of my own first." Terrace said as he aimed the chaingun up toward the ship that was firing down upon Jenny. The multiple barrels revved up and spun. Energy-based rounds then tore through the enemy forces.

"How's Jakob?" Philip asked.

"They're fine. We just need to take down the ships. That enough clearing for you to get us aboard?" Terrace asked Orange.

"I think we should let Jenny take them down from inside while we keep up with this suppressing fire on the other ships." Philip replied.

"Actually, what he said." Terrace said.

Orange didn't say anything, but Philip spotted a nodding gesture. Terrace continued his repeated plastering of destruction on the ships.

---

Jenny was ripping apart Cluster Soldiers with any manner of gadgets her mother integrated within her vast arsenal. One would think the Warden and the Captain be incredibly stupid to try to stand up to her with pulse rifles and nothing else.

However, what the Warden and the Captain were highly skilled at were close-quarter tactics, or any range at that.

The Captain swung his rifle around the corner and opened fire on Jenny. Three rounds caught her shoulder. The Captain didn't see; he was too busy retreating in a Hit-&-Run technique.

The Warden did the same. It began to frustrate the XJ-9, which was exactly what the duo were expecting.

They retreated while the Robot Girl sent her frustrations on just about anything in the ship. They both met up at the Stealth ship.

"We definitely screwed with her, don't you think?"

"Personally, I would have killed her, but now's a little too soon to start our rise to power. Not to mention the fact that Vexas is here. I'd much rather kill the XJ-9 when Vexas isn't around, so there would be no way for her to try to take the credit."

"Understandable. She's too weak to kill the XJ-9 anyway."

"Get aboard and get it revved up. I'll cover you." Warden said.

"It's already functional. Lets get out of here."

Warden jumped onto the craft as the small door closed. The ship turned invisible as it launched into space.


	17. Chapter 17

-----17

The ships were crippled, and Skyway Patrol apprehended them and towed them away. High Hopes landed in the park, where Philip got down from the apartment and met up with Jakob and Jessie. The sniper rifle barrel was still hot from the multiple shots taken at Cluster Soldiers.

Said soldiers were littering the park, steaming from metal-on-metal slashing, oil catching fire from sparks, or general explosions caused by severe circuitry damage. Either way, the ARKS were victorious. That means the XJ-9 was as well.

However, she took pretty severe damage. She collapsed when she landed.

Jakob and Jessie got to XJ-9. Jakob caught her before she hit the ground.

"Whoa, you look pretty bashed-up. What happened?"

"Two Cluster... looked different... couldn't find them..." Jenny wheezed with a damaged voice modulator.

"Two Cluster... they looked different..." Jakob muttered. "Did one of them, perchance, have a beard?"

"I... I think so."

Jakob swore as he backed away to let Jessie do some repair work.

"What's wrong?" Philip asked, walking up after storing the sniper rifle aboard High Hopes. Terrace was also with him.

"The Warden's onto us." Jakob replied.

"Who?"

"You know the prison you were cooped up in and fed that nasty grub? He's the guy who most likely gave the order do do everything."

"Ah, hence the name Warden..."

"Don't sound sarcastic. The Warden is a very dangerous robot. He's the one that started World War R, and lived through every battle he was in. He's got hundreds of years of experience under his belt, and he's not an idiot. Far from it, actually."

"Then why did he retreat?"

"As I said, he's not an idiot. He would know better than to try and take on the XJ-9 alone without any sort of advantage. He most likely escaped after dealing enough damage."

"Who would the second guy be?"

"His Second-in-Command." Terrace replied. "They call him The Captain or simply Captain. Heck, I don't think they know each others real names."

"I was about to say... odd names for high-ranking officers." Philip replied.

"But you realise what this means, right?" Terrace asked.

"I don't know what the threat is, apart from the fact that the Warden and Captain are very dangerous bad guys in combat, but I still don't see what makes them something more than the Queen Vexas herself." Philip said.

"Actually, they are."

"How so?"

"Queen Vexas is a crappy commander, make no mistake. Even Skyway Patrol, under all its stupidity, know damn well that the XJ-9 will never join the Cluster unless completely reprogrammed. Said tactic is something Vexus won't try to do, which is incredibly stupid. She tries to beat her ideals into XJ-9, hoping it would cause even a speck of sympathy."

"And... what, the Warden and Captain do otherwise?"

"They're the real military power, but they are underlings to Vexus. Considering their superior intellect and experience, even though Vexus is probably a millennium older than the two of them, they wouldn't like being ordered around by an old hag."

"Why haven't they revolted?"

"They're working under the law while figuring out a way to get rid of Vexus, at the same time, guaranteeing themselves unanimous leadership over the Cluster. I have no idea how they're going to do that."

"Maybe that's why he was here." Philip said.

"What do you mean?"

"In order to make him a trusted guy with a good reputation, he'll need to get on good terms with the public. Everyone knows that the ARKS are a very hated "gang" at Cluster Prime. If Warden and Captain killed us and got the credit for it, they would be heroes beyond imagination. With a reputation like that, their ways of removing Vexus would be much easier, because there could always be the reason of "Suicide out of jealousy". You know?"

"This is exactly the reason why we made you our brains. You over your Rampancy yet?"

"I don't know, to be honest." Philip said, now looking at XJ-9, who was temporarily deactivated in order for Jessie to repair internal systems.

"Anyway, It's not as simple as that. See, Vexus has a kid of her own. Vega's her name. Quite a dame."

Jessie and Terrace both gave Jakob strange looks.

"What?" Jessie asked, otherwise out of words.

"... Dame?" Terrace chuckled.

"I'm a freakin' teenager, what do you expect me to say?"

"Hot?" Philip said.

"Not helping," Jessie sighed while Terrace's laughter started to grow.

"Whatever. Vega's Vexas' kid. She would be a factor that the Warden would have to remove as well."

"That would pose a dilemma." Philip said. "If this "hot dame" (Terrace burst out laughing hysterically at this point) were to live, she would be very suspicious of Vexas' death and would most likely investigate. She would no doubt uncover what happened to Vexas. On the other hand, if Warden kills her along with Vexas, people will start to become a little suspicious. The Queen herself is a strange enough death, but her "dame-of-a-daughter" as well."

"Will you shut up, Terrace?" Jakob asked. Terrace was on the ground. Jessie started to laugh as well, while Philip got infected by the contagious hilarity.

Jakob attempted to resist, but he then started to laugh.

The mood was killed when Orange called "Time in possible danger. Recommend we return home, ASAP."

"Sure thing, Orange. We'll just need to get Jenny repaired." Jessie called back. Said repairs were over soon after. When Jenny woke up, she noticed that Jakob was carrying her. Philip was walking beside, while the faint sound of a helicopter rang in her sound sensors.

"What happened?" the robot-girl asked.

"You got some heavy damage, but Jessie got you fixed up."

"No, I mean with the attack."

"It was successful. We repelled the attackers with no human casualties. Orange and Terrace even scouted the area to see if there were any areas where abductions could have happened."

"That's good news."

"Anyway, you'll need to wait for a moment for the welds to solidify before we can let you get on your own feet again. Which class is your first?"

"Second Floor, Social Studies." She replied as she activated sleep mode again.

"Phil, think you can take her for a minute?"

"She's taller than me. I'd rather not have her feet drag on the ground."

"Fine." Jakob huffed.

"Still mad about the dame comments?" Phil smiled.

"Not in the least." Jakob sarcastically replied.

The duo made it to the school. They had the usual glaring shot at them. The XJ-9's red-haired friend and five and-a-half foot tall other friend ran up to Jakob.

"Before you ask, yes. She's fine." Philip said.

"What happened?" the red-haired one asked.

"Cluster Attack. More severe than we thought it would have been. She asked us to get to her first class before she entered sleep move." Jakob said.

"I have the same class as her. I'll show you the way." he replied.

Jakob and Phil dropped off Jenny to her first class. The red-haired one was there, so the robot girl should be fine.

"I've been meaning to ask you." the black-haired friend of XJ-9 said to Philip as they walked to their own classes. Jakob made his way to the gym, where his first class was.

"Yeah?"

"You were that one paintball player who never really associated with anyone, right?"

"More or less." Philip replied. "More like I was, when I think about it."

"You went missing last week."

"Yeah, I did... Wait, today's Monday, right?"

"Yeah."

"Whoa, I've been out for the whole weekend..." Philip muttered. Jakob sure knew how to kick. The homework still needs to be caught up with.

"Anyway, no hard feelings?" Philip asked.

"Yeah, name's Sheldon." he replied. "My class is coming up. Is it yours as well?"

"Yeah, actually. I never noticed we were in the same class," Philip commented. He started to wonder why Sheldon was in art class as well.

Sheldon nodded as they both entered. Sheldon sat near one of the front corners. The window outside gave Sheldon a clear view of the classroom where Jenny was. It didn't take a moment of thought for Philip to realise that he was in love with the robot girl.

Philip shrugged and nabbed a piece of extra paper from a side counter. He still had a pencil in the hoody he wore. It was Art Class, but the teacher had his coffee, and was starting to teach art history.

School started nicely, a Cluster attack thwarted, a baby-step in forgiveness for recent actions achieved. It was definitely a good day.


	18. Chapter 18

-----18

Philip shoved the now-folded piece of paper laden with notes into his pocket. His pencil followed as he stood up. The bell had just rang, and Philip never realised his reaction time had improved. He simply left the classroom. Sheldon didn't seem interested in leaving immediately.

The next class went like last day. Nothing of interest happened. It was as if no one even looked at Philip anymore. He didn't mind it. Better that than glaring.

Lunch was pretty typical. The XJ-9 and her friends even sat with Philip and Jakob. Jakob seemed to be drawing in a sketchbook, oblivious to everything around him. The others were simply mingling with each other while Philip drank the motor oil he was given. He liked the taste of it, if he had a sense of taste.

Don Prima wasn't there. His posse were the only ones to be glaring at the two, save for the popular girls.

The COMM radio on Jakob's shoulder started to crackle, as if the other end was being bumped around.

"Jakob?" It was Terrace.

"Go ahead." Jakob replied.

"We're attempting to make contact with Skyway Patrol HQ."

"And...?"

"We managed to have them agree to lend some transports capable of carrying everyone out of Cluster Prime."

"Good news. I'm assuming there's bad news?"

"More or less. They refuse to let their pilots join us in the incursion. Something about World War R having to do with it."

"World War R is dead. It's been dead for a decade and the heat has been cool since then."

"You obviously never were in a war." Terrace replied.

"We currently are." Jakob chuckled. Philip was a little surprised of Jakob's black humor.

"Anyway, in order for us to be able to use the transport ships, which they so graciously landed beside Time, we'll need some people capable of flying them."

"How many?"

"Two. Each can carry about a thousand apiece."

"Time can carry another hundred if we manage to stuff them in," Jakob muttered. "I guess I'll try to find pilots."

"That's what I called you for. Terrace out."

Jakob took his finger off of the talk button and continued drawing.

"Any of you know any pilots?" Jakob asked. The XJ-9, her red-haired friend, and Sheldon looked at each other. Sheldon then raised his hand a little.

"Nice." Jakob said. "Orange can take care of Time, Trig and Drawl on one ship, and you with the other. Sound good, Phil?"

"Yeah." Philip replied after finishing off the motor oil.

"We'll have to get excused for the next few days before we go out for this. I'll talk with the VP about that."

The bell rang, and everyone started moving like sheep. Phil made his way to his next class, while Jakob walked with the XJ-9 and her red-haired friend. They had the same Chemistry class.

---

"That turned out more nicely than expected, actually." the Captain said.

"Apart from the fact that I would've much rather enjoyed killing the XJ-9." the Warden replied.

The two of them were in the Warden's office. Pictures, file cabinets, and memorable posters riddled the wall, all complemented by the Warden's desk. It looked wood, but was really ornately-welded titanium. The Warden was looking through the Prisoner files and compared them to recent reports.

"Looks like someone escaped." the Warden said.

"Who?" The Warden asked. It was byfar the first time someone has ever escaped, unaided by the ARKS anyway. Otherwise no one ever got close to managing.

"That Hender character. He was the first one Subject Seven-Seven-Nine met."

"He's the only one?" the Captain asked.

"Yeah. Makes me wonder just how long he'll survive."

"Four bucks says within the week."

"You're making it hard for me."

"Alright, alright. Within the next two days."

"That's better."

The Warden and Captain continued sipping on their oil-based drinks.

"We've yet to pull off our plan." the Captain commented.

"We'll need the ARKS to finally arrive if we're to pull it off. Hopefully the XJ-9 will be with them, so we can kill all of the birds."

---

The school seemed brighter, now that Philip and Jakob left with their reputations not as blackened as yesterday. Baby steps to get in favour. They'll take a huge leap if they're successful in their operation.

A slight tremor was felt throughout the school mid-way through Third Period. Everyone instinctively looked out the nearby windows to see the XJ-9 fly up and combat a bunch of Cluster soldiers. Phil spotted someone apparently leading the strike team. She had long black antennae holding up some red orb over top her general bee-striped exoskeleton. She looked like a Queen Bee of sorts.

Philip saw Jakob run out with what looks like that net device Sheldon used when they first made contact with the Robot Girl.

Without any words, Jakob took aim and fired. The Queen Bee robot had an expression similar to shock as the net grabbed her in mid-air and pulled her down to the ground.

Philip opened one of the windows near his desk and jumped out. The XJ-9 continued destroying the Cluster Soldiers as Jakob and Philip ran to the downed Queen.

The robot girl was soon done with the strike team, and landed beside Jakob and Philip.

"Vexas. I should be thankful you arrived so soon." Jakob said.

"Now how shall I finish this once and for all?" The XJ-9 asked the trapped robot, switching one of her arms to a many assortment of weapons.

"No, Jenny! That's what the Warden would want us to do!" Philip said.

Not only the XJ-9 displayed confusion, but Vexas as well.

"What?" they both asked, then glared at each other.

"You're probably not going to believe us, Vexas, but we know things that you don't." Jakob said.

"What is this about the Warden?" Vexas asked.

"You have time for a story?" Jakob asked.

"We still have school, you know." Philip said.

Jakob nodded and turned to the radio on his shoulder.

"Terrace, you'll never know who dropped by for a little visit."

"Orange and I are on the way, same with Drawl."

"No Trig?" Jakob asked. He knew that Drawl and Trig never separated, as Drawl was the only one capable of carrying Trig from terminal to terminal.

"No. He needs to stay with Time to make sure that systems remain green." Terrace replied.

"Got it," Jakob said, "See you soon."

Philip got back to his class, which continued like normal, while Jakob and Jenny remained with Vexas, making sure she doesn't try to escape. Soon, the familiar helicopter was heard, and High Hopes came to view from the windows.

Terrace and Jakob brought the still-trapped Queen Vexas onto High Hopes and soon flew off; leaving the Robot Girl and Jakob to go back to their classes. Philip would have to wait until after school in order to see what will happen with the Queen Bee.

---

The bell rang, indicating the end of the school day. Philip jumped out of the second-story window of his fourth-period class without thinking. He landed clumsily, but got back up again. He wanted to see what would happen with Vexus.

He passed by Mezmer's, the corner cafe that doubled as the teenager hang-out. He noticed that Don Prima was back, but still bandaged heavily. Jessie must have gone for a visit, he thought. He couldn't escape without catching Don's piercing glare.

Philip didn't have time to waste with someone who can't drop a grudge. The ARKS literally had the Queen of the Cluster in their own back yard. Information will be passed, and it would only be a matter of time before things start getting exciting.

Jakob was already at Time when Philip arrived. The XJ-9 probably gave him a lift; she was there as well.

Vexus was still in the net-trap, but this time kept under watch by Terrace, armed with a pulse rifle. "Precautions," Jakob muttered to Philip.

"Alright, everyone's here," Vexus said, "Now what was all this about the Warden?"

"The Warden, as you know perfectly well, runs the human slavery factor in your empire. He also runs the army as Supreme General. The tip of Top Brass."

"Go on..."

"Anyway, he doesn't like being ultimately inferior to you, whom he has claimed to be a stubborn bee that doesn't know when to stop on trivial goals."

Vexus growled, insulted. Jakob could sympathize.

"But the thing is, I can actually agree with him. You continuously waste Cluster Soldiers trying to convert the XJ-9. As far as we're know, he could have been plotting a perfect over-throw of the crown."

It was obvious that Vexus wasn't going to buy this information that easily, even if she's tied in a net. After a staring contest, Jakob simply shook his head.

"Whatever. Just go back to Cluster Prime. If I were you, I'd watch my back over there." he said, ripping the net open.

Vexus buzzed and slashed open a rift. She entered the rift and was gone.

Jakob sat down on a makeshift bench made of empty supply boxes, stationed outside the main door of Time

"At least we got the thought on her mind," Philip said.

Jakob nodded in reply.

"Something on your mind?" Terrace asked.

"One thing you should never do is underestimate the Warden, especially since he almost destroyed the XJ-9 with superior thinking. Even assuming he can't beat the XJ-9 alone, we still don't know the full extent of his ability, and he's probably got more power in Cluster Prime than Vexas... and no one even knows it."

"You know him?"

"Met him once. Close-quarters duel, Solo Op. Translucent. I still don't know how I survived."

"You never did report regarding Solo Op. Translucent. What happened exactly?" Jessie asked.

"It was going like normal. Infiltrated the Cluster Museum without a problem. Bomb was set in the security station. Managed to get artworks in a safe place from the bomb-"

"Wait, you saved the artwork?" Terrace asked.

"Do I look like the one who would let paintings get destroyed?" Jakob growled. Terrace simply nodded. "Anyway, I was about to get out when the Warden was there with a bunch of guards. The guards weren't much of a problem, but I ran out of ammo for the pistol I had after the last one. Warden came at me. He snapped my leg without a problem and sent me across the room. I detonated the bomb, which blasted rubble in Warden's face. In the dust, I got out."

"You weren't damaged from the explosion then." Jessie said.

"No, I wasn't."

Everyone exchanged glances.

"Now seeing as he can manage attacking Jenny here and escaping, he's no-doubt more powerful than... well, any of us."

"How about combined?" Philip asked.

"We'd have to be super-organized, which we aren't, and won't be during... Was it Operation Goodbye Blue Sky?" Jakob asked Terrace, who nodded. "Anyway, we're going to be split up due to the fact that we'll have to use our own members for pilots, and that Sheldon guy as well. Our sniper, stealth, and hacking experts will be busy."

Orange, Drawl, and Trig, of course, Philip thought.

"Now Phil, you're a um... jack-of-all-trades, master in none," Jakob said. "We'll probably have to train you in this sort of stuff before we even begin. You did good during the four-cruiser assault, but now we're going to be on their turf. Much more dangerous.

"Okay... Just one more thing though," Philip said.

Jakob nodded Philip to continue.

"My parents... They're missing. I went home twice, and it's been desolate. Nothing disturbed the dust that collected."


	19. Chapter 19

-----19

Next day, Philip was early to leave. Terrace and Jakob were with him. They planned to investigate Philip's empty home to find clues as to where his parents could have gone. The sun hadn't even risen yet. It was still early in the morning.

The roads were empty, typical for a residential area. The cars had long cooled down from their day usage, and everyone was still asleep.

The trio soon found and entered Philip's abode. They then started searching without a word.

"We got something," Terrace said after an hour, when they started searching the kitchen.

"What is it?" Philip asked.

"Looks like a knife with fingerprints on it."

"Scan it then."

"What will we do with them?" Jakob asked.

"We'll take the fingerprints to the police to have them analyzed." Philip replied.

Terrace nodded and stored the knife in a storage cell in his relatively large arms.

"Not Skyway Patrol?" Jakob asked. Philip responded by giving Jakob an emotionless look. "Ah, I get it," Jakob finally said.

"Did you honestly think Skyway Patrol would be an option?" Philip asked. Terrace couldn't help but laugh. "Now look what you did to Terrace. First the "hot dame", now this!"

Terrace burst out laughing hysterically. Jakob's eyes lined in annoyance.

"Right, enough," Philip said. Terrace stifled his laughter, or rather, attempted to. Jakob still stood

"There's still a problem with your plan. I doubt they'd be so willing to do the scanning for us."

"Which means we'll need Trig. He'll hack into the police files to find a match on this knife. Once we do, man hunt time."

"And we'll find him and get the information from him?" Jakob asked.

"The Dogs of War won't negotiate." Terrace added.

"Enough quoting. Terrace, you get Drawl and Trig to get the information we need. Jakob and I will go to school to avoid arousing suspicion by the students, while the rest will take care of Time"

Jakob and Terrace nodded. Philip was wondering just what made the two not as competent leaders. They had much more combat experience. In Terrace's case, much more than the XJ-9. After all, She wasn't even activated during World War R.

Actually, Jakob must have known about World war R. He's literally twelve years older than XJ-9, he would've been around five years old during the war.

---

"What is it this time, Captain?"

"Got some information regarding Orange."

"What about him?"

"Remember the battle at Rimy?"

"Yes, that landslide victory?"

"It would have been a humiliating defeat if not for Orange."

"Wait, he's a War Vet?"

"From what I learned at the Veteran's Hall. One hell of one too."

The Warden suddenly remembered an old memory. "Ah yes, that heroic sniper... He was called... Gettysburg. Master Sergeant Gettysburg from Platoon 5. I gave him the Victoria Cap after that battle. He disappeared after that."

"Actually, he reappeared later. Turns out he was transferred to a new front against the Pyllyans."

"I guess that's what made us lose against the humans next battle."

"Who would've thought that one sniper could make that much of a difference."

"At least we beat the ever-loving crap out of the Pyllyans and got resources to rebuild after the war."

"Can't win it all, but you can't lose it all."

Both of them chuckled. The Captain suddenly remembered something and spoke again.

"By the way, what's your next move regarding the Queen?"

"I came for a visit for reconnaissance purposes, but she wasn't there. The First Daughter was also at school, so she wasn't there either. No idea where Vexus is though," The Warden replied.

"Probably went on one of those random attacks on Earth like she usually does," The Captain muttered.

"Unfortunately... bitch..."


	20. Chapter 20

-----20

Philip and Jakob arrived at school. It was a typical day, which led straight to lunch period. Jakob got a call on the radio.

"Terrace here," the ever so-familiar voice crackled through.

"Speak to me," Jakob replied after taking one more gulp of oil.

"We got a match. Now what?"

"We obviously find him, that's what." Jakob replied.

"How exactly will we do that?" Terrace asked.

"Do what?" It was the XJ-9. She and her friends arrived at the table late in the conversation.

"We should be able to find out what he's a part of, and we can narrow down locations he would usually be. Home, work place, friends, etcetera."

"Oh yeah, minor note," Terrace chimed in, "It's a she, not a he."

Jakob hummed in response and Philip nodded. The XJ-9's buddies seemed to give odd looks. Jakob took note of it; Philip knew why as well. They were efficient, not sexist.

"Right, back to relevance. What do you have?"

"We'll investigate after school. She's young enough to be at school."

"Out of curiosity, what's the person's name?" Jakob asked.

"Lets see... Brittany Krust." Terrace replied. [to those who may call me out on this, I flipped a coin, honest.]

Everyone paused in shock. After a few seconds, Terrace asked if something was wrong. Jakob shushed into the radio. They both spotted the Krust Cousins entering. Both the target and her shorter cousin, Tiffany. They were the most popular girls in school, and have no-doubt wasted millions of dollars on clothing articles they would only wear for a day and only that day and never again. Jakob wondered if they ever sold their old stuff to at least save on money. If they did, they would be possibly billionares.

Philip wondered how exactly their parents got ahold of such large sums of money.

"Damn, just our bloody luck..." Jakob muttered into the radio, "Keep radio silence. The target you named is the taller of the Krust Cousins, who go to this school. The duo are incredibly popular and almost impossible to get to without public notice."

Philip knew as well- even above the knowledge of anyone there. He was in the same grade as the Krust Cousins and even went to their more junior schools. He's known about the Krust Cousins since Elementary. He found that fact unfortunate; they were easily the most stuck-up, spoiled brats in the history of Tremorton, or maybe even the world.

The duo passed by with their posse. Once they were out of listening range, Philip whispered to Jakob.

"They're near-inseparable..."

"Doesn't necessarily mean we're trying to get Britt alone."

"We can't do anything to them, though. They're too well-known, and they have to big of a fanbase. We'll need to get them on their good side instead of interrogation."

"Interrogation?" The XJ-9 asked.

"The Krust Cousins?" The red-haired Brad Carbuckle asked.

Both Jakob and Philip quickly shot glances in the general direction of the target. They were relieved when it turned out they were too busy to notice.

"Right. Anyway, I have no idea how we're supposed to get the information out of Britt," Jakob muttered, "Got any ideas?"

"Just one. It's risky, but it's better than anything else I can come up with," Philip said as he stood up and started walking straight toward the Cousins.

"Excuse me, miss?"

The duo turned to see Philip and silently continued their snobby nature. They were listening, but apparently didn't want to waste breath.

"Question for Britt: I have reason to believe that you're involved in a kidnapping case involving two parental figures. True or false?"

Jakob suddenly got the idea. Put pressure on her right in public.

"Why I never..." Britt seemed angered, and slightly embarassed. Philip didn't let her speak anymore, however.

"We found your fingerprints on an old knife at the scene. Don't tell me that it was all just a coincidence. No human has the exact same prints."

Britt started to cry innocently. Jakob and Philip knew they were fake tears, and so did the XJ-9 and her friends. Everyone else seemed to buy it.

"Yo! Don't be pulling off something stupid on my cousin!" the shorter Tiff shouted.

"Oh shut up," Philip hissed, "We double-checked and triple-checked because we never thought a fellow classmate would have been involved in this sort of thing. We confirmed it, and we'll need to take her in for questioning."

Jakob walked up to join Philip's side. A bunch of loyal friends of Britt and Tiff lined up in front of them. A bunch of football player friends were on their left flank.

"We could be wrong, mind you. You really could be innocent. But there's only one way to find that out. Just come with us," Philip said.

One of them was about to swing a punch, before backing down again upon staring into Jakob's rifle, which he whipped out from under his shirt.

Britt burst into a sprint, however. She was fast enough to blast through the door.

"Damn, they always run!" Jakob barked as he jumped through the crowd. Tiff was knocked over, along with two of her girlfriends. The football players, more caring about girls, tended to the clobbered. Philip simply jogged after Jakob.

Brad, Sheldon, and Jenny remained at the table, unsure of what to do. The XJ-9 then flew after Philip and Jakob.

---

"Good lord, she's fast..." Jakob muttered. She was already across the field, apparently calling for an escape vehicle. A limousine arrived before Jakob and Philip could do anything. An explosion erupted behind them, and the duo saw the XJ-9 rocket at sonic speeds to the limo. One punch sent the long car upside-down and spinning.

Jakob and Philip caught up. The XJ-9 already tore off the door, allowing the duo to pull out their intended target. A masked robotic driver jumped out of the driver-side door and whipped out a plasma-based pistol. One shot made contact with Jakob's face. The XJ-9 responded with her own laser weapon, completely obliterating the attacker.

Jakob lay on the ground, while Philip pinned down the target.

"Jakob?" Philip called. There was no response, and Philip cursed. He then turned his head to the XJ-9. "Get him to Time, ASAP!"

The robot girl nodded as he picked up the faceless android and flew toward the mountains, causing a sonic boom as she soared. Philip kept one hand on both her arms. Since she wasn't a robot, she wouldn't have been able to try anything. Philip checked the limo to see if it was still in working condition. It wasn't.

Fortunately, the familiar rotors of High Hopes rang in his ears. He turned and walked to where he expected the Landing Zone to be. He pushed the Krust Cousin aboard and climbed on himself. The other cousin rushed toward the helicopter to try to save Britt. Too late, however- the helicopter was already off the ground and on its way to Time.


	21. Chapter 21

-----21

Jenny had already left on patrol long before the roters of High Hopes finally slowed to a dead stop. Philip was already out and running to the medical office. The door was closed, and Drawl stood silently, preventing Philip from entering.

"How's he doing?" Jakob asked.

Drawl didn't answer. His face never told any story. It was shrouded in a hood. Apart from the hood, all he could see was a vented mask that covered his entire face. There was no emotion. If he were to have any obvious specialty, it would be stealth. Easily a handy trait to have in combination with a hacking expert such as Trig.

Orange and Terrace walked past them with Britt between them. She was kicking and screaming of kidnapping. Ironic, considering that evidence points her as involved with the kidnapping of Philip's parents.

Some questioning would be necessary, Philip though, especially when she's got contacts with sentient robotic soldiers and being involved with a severe injury on Jakob's part.

Jessie's face appeared through the slightly fogged transparent glass-like pane in the door. Drawl stepped aside as the door opened. She stepped out and let the door close. She prevented Philip from entering.

"Is he dead?" Philip asked.

"No, just in lock-down until his brain is sealed up again," she replied.

Jessie saw the confused look on Phil's face. "The welding job required for this is too intense for someone of my level. Such precision is beyond my own capabilities."

"Who has those capabilities?"

"I have heard of a welder that lives in Tremorton with abilities beyond anything I've ever imagined. His weaponry designed for Skyway Patrol were the stuff of legends. Although I'm not sure if he's still alive. He also built a robotic soldier for reasons that remain unknown."

"Who is he?" Philip asked.

"KPG."

Philip froze solid. The legend was known to everyone in Tremorton. The so-called Scientist who lived in a bunker for over thirty years without so much as leaving. Even if he did, he was fully suited in powered armor. Anything else, he sent that robotic "soldier" to do his bidding. He had forgotten the name of the robot, and no one knew the scientist's name apart from what the soldier always says.

KPG. Some say it's his initials, some say it's a reference to the old Russian KGB Secret Police. There have been accusations that KPG was a Communist, to which the soldier in his place never denied. Or maybe it was just something entirely random.

He was very real. The soldier that occasionally trekked across town doing odd jobs, visiting Asian restaurants, keeping the peace while the XJ-9 was elsewhere. No one ever really cared by the second year since their arrival. In fact, some even forgot that either existed.

How the hell can he be contacted if they never talk to people?

"Can't Dr. Wakeman do something?" Philip asked.

Jessie shook her head, "She doesn't like us. I even tried talking to her before, even told her of our intentions. She remembered Jakob's violent nature and never wanted anything to do with it."

"KPG never comes out though."

"Find his soldier friend, tell him of the problem."

Philip was about to ask how, but even he knew the answer well. All he needed to do was go to places where one would go to learn about the social humanity. The robotic soldier made by KPG was a lot like the XJ-9 in that sense.

Considering that, he would no-doubt be at the Mall, or at Mezmer's. If neither, he'll be at any assortment of Asian restaurants. Rumors have spread that KPG really loved green onion cakes.

Philip never tried those, however. He was never one for Chinese food. Karl was a huge fan of it.

Thanks to Karl, Philip knew where every restaurant would be if he failed to find this soldier accomplice to KPG.

He'll start tomorrow. For now, he wants to see how the interrogation turns out.


	22. Chapter 22

-----22

Drawl was a stealth specialist, and he was said to possess interesting interrogation methods. The most effective of which required a partnership with Jakob.

Seeing as the latter is was currently out of the picture, that caused another problem that needed to be solved, and Britt will have to be held for a longer period of time. The local authorities and Skyway Patrol would be suspicious of a kidnapping case.

The first step to it was for Terrace and Jessie to negociate with the local authorities and Skyway Patrol, using diplomacy tips from Philip's naturally tactical mind. They were to justify it by the fact that Philip's parents are missing and Britt has been proven to be somehow involved with the double-kidnapping. The second step was for Philip to search for KPG through the robotic soldier that's around to "keep the peace." After that, Jakob can get repaired. The repaired Jakob can thus be able to pull off the interrogation alongside Drawl.

He had asked Jessie why Drawl needed Jakob. She simply shrugged, saying that the techniques Drawl knows requires a partner who knows how to do it right, and he'd rather keep it between himself and Jakob. Not even the other members of the ARKS knew.

Suspicious? I think so, Philip thought to himself.

He left to Tremorton. A sick note for Jakob was easily conjoured. Terrace and Orange were off elsewhere. Drawl and Trig were hanging out in the cockpit, continuing maintenance. Jessie was still fixing the resting stations and her own offices.

Alone, Philip pondered just how he'll be able to face everyone. Suddenly remembering the kid whose kneecap he dislocated. Jakob was not the most-liked guy in the world. Even Philip knew that. What if the police would get involved in that event?

At school, there were no flashing lights or the blue, black, and white cars with the indoor computer systems and the sirens on top. No kids looked at him. There were no kids.

Philip was four hours early, he just realised. If only Jessie actually took notice... or anyone in that matter.

No, Philip thought, I shouldn't be blaming others for my own stupidity. This quietness could give me time to re-think things. Try to figure out what to do.

He spotted an odd-looking humanoid in a knee-length trench coat and wide-brim fedora. Obviously used khakis covered his legs all the way to his armored boots. The face was covered in what looked like a helmet. The visor and muzzle plate in combination made him look as if he were constantly grinning in an evil way.

Philip recognized him right off the bat, and got to his feet. He had been sitting beside the school doors.

There were two pointed ears poking through the armored man's hat. Probably to keep the actual hat on. The armored character stopped as Philip approached.

"I need KPG's help," Philip said.


	23. Chapter 23

-----23

"Welding job?" The figure asked. Philip nearly jumped at the sound of the figure's voice. It sounded relatively old, despite the rumors that the figure was merely twenty-four years old. Perhaps his voice was similar to KPG's, or maybe hiding behind that mask of his took dangerous effect.

No one had ever seen his real face, save for the man at Mezmer's and any of the Chinese food joints. Even then, all they got a glimpse of, apparently, was his chin. Mezmer had said that the man was a robot, despite having skin and a beard. Apparently his skin was made of a lighter, more flexible variant of kevlar.

However, the voice and ultimate mysteriousness the character put on was not what Philip nearly jumped about. It was the fact that the character seemed to know exactly what Philip was thinking. It was almost as if he were psychic.

He couldn't be, however. Philip had heard the rumors. This guy had a tactical mind beyond belief. If he were here five years earlier, he could probably have torn apart Skyway Patrol for the robots. The Cluster would have reigned supreme.

Philip felt thankful, that this armored soldier was not anywhere at the time. His arrival was confirmed to be from two years ago. By then, repairs to the Earth had been made.

Part of him started to wonder why it was called "World War R", when it was more of a Galactic War than anything. It was probably just another one of those call-backs to World War 2, and calling an alliance of countries that people don't like "An Axis of Evil."

Not surprising. The war cut the human population by a third, and the Cluster army by two thirds themselves. They were evenly-matched, and it was only because of the XJ-9's interference that a truce had been accomplished. The Cluster stood no chance for the XJ-9.

But why did World War R begin? It was a question that Philip didn't know. He'd have to ask for a history lesson later. For now, there was the armored man he was trying to find.

"Yes- welding job," Philip replied.

The other hummed and pulled out a cellphone. It looked custom-made, just like the attire and armor suit he wore. Before he started typing on the key pad, he added comments.

"Heard about ARKS."

"What about them?"

"Your leader. Heard what happened to him. More violent than myself. Nowhere near as intelligent or resourceful. Feel embarressed that we share the same name."

Philip nodded. One learns something new every day. This one was also named Jakob.

"Otherwise good people. I respect your plans."

Philip raised an eyebrow.

"Can't care enough about humans to join in on your future invasion however. Will be able to provide the aid needed. Prefer keeping this discreet."

Philip nodded. The other clicked one last button on the cellphone and then waited.

"Ever hear of World War R?" Philip asked.

"Wasn't part of it. Still undergoung in-lab testing at the time."

"But you know why it happened?"

"KPG... He says it was because of the malfuction of another one of Wakeman's creations, the Precursor to the XJ Line."

A ping emitted from the cellphone. The armored one had been texting.

"Good news. He can help. Bring your friend here. Will lead on."

It took Philip another half-hour to run to _Time_ and back again. Jakob waved lifelessly as Philip ran back to the rondevouz point.

The other was still there, and picked up Jakob with practically no effort. He was examining the wound.

"Christ, plasma-based shots. Looks like they're starting production of that kind of weapon. Can't be like my own, though. Energy battery creates concentrated globs. No piercing ability whatsoever. Very serious anyway. Lucky to be fixable."

He marched off immediately with Jakob on his back. Philip followed until they came across a tiny all-cinder block house. Steel plating on the outside was securely fastened and painted with a green camouflage pattern.

The armored man motioned Philip to stop. He didn't recognise the hand signals at-first, but then stepped back onto the main sidewalk. The other entered with Jakob. This is probably why KPG is usually rumored to be just a name. No one ever sees him. But how can he be so willing to do repairs on Jakob?

An hour later, the door opened again. The armored one walked up to Philip and lay Jakob at his feet. He then walked back inside and closed the door again. Jakob activated and rose slowly. No wonder, Philip thought. He keeps them offline throughout and reactivates them once they're outside.

Jakob swore under his breath multiple times, followed by "As soon as I get my hands on..."

He then realised that he and Philip were in an altogether different location. Before Jakob could ask, Philip was already explaining what had been happening.

"I guess after school, we'll get to the interrogation," Jakob seemed rather disappointed. Whether it was the opportunity to torment an annoying snob, or being able to team up with Drawl. Philip won't be able to tell.


	24. Chapter 24

-----24

Philip never expected Jakob and Drawl to be such a good interrogation team. It's unsure how exactly they got the information out of Britt. The door to the cell was sound-proofed entirely.

They got the information, though. That was all that mattered at the time. Philip was unsure as to how everyone else would respond. This would not go unnoticed.

A single human's mental capacity these days will not be as important as the lives of a good thousand being beaten, tortured, and slaved to death in a society that despises their species in general. Good thing they have the XJ-9 on their side. At least, they hoped they did.

Britt did not look physically scarred, and there seemed to be no emotional damage. Mental damage would be out of the question. Maybe they were just that effective. Philip's curiosity spawned a personal fear of the duo joining forces on a project.

Their information was something that will be announced later, once everyone was in the main cockpit. Terrace and Orange were bringing Britt back and reporting their findings to the police.

Rotor blades slicing through the air pinged to everyone's audio sensory group. Soon after the helicopter engine shut down, the sniper and soldier arrived.

"So what did you find?" Philip asked immediately.

"She's involved," Jakob finally said.

Philip was actually quite glad. Not because the annoying egotistical girls had it coming to them, but also because if it was all for naught, then they went straight back to square one.

"Tremorton is notorious for its borderline gang activity, as you and I know," Jakob said, more to Philip than anyone else. "They work that way out of fear of the XJ-9, and they make sure they don't pick a fight with her directly. That leaves them with the police, who are ultimately inefficient as it is, and Skyway Patrol, who usually have _better_ things to do."

Everyone burst out laughing. Terrace added a joke regarding "paperwork for buying paper to do more paperwork," which resulted in more laughs. Orange and Drawl didn't laugh, though. They were concentrating on repairs. Orange also apparently lost his sense of humor from World War R. That's what he said anyway.

Reports have been filed, and the interrogation was even allowed. A kidnapping case is something really serious. The ARKS will have to employ their skills.

And employ they did. With the help of the XJ-9 and the police, they effectively combed the streets. The media had become involved.

After a week, Philip started to wonder just what the hell they're doing for their original mission. He asked Trig, the only one left at _Time_.

"We have two ships capable of carring the total estimated population, plus our own for any stragglers. I have this craft, Orange has one, and we've got the human Sheldon to pilot the third. Orange is with him, training him to work the ship more effectively as we speak."

"A week of training would make him good at it," Philip agreed, nodded. He tested the chair he was in out of boredum. The holographic mask image turned.

"Bored?"

"Like hell," Philip murmured.

"Your parents will be found. We had a reputation back on Cluster Prime. We knew how to find things and people. Some deep-down managed to find ways to make contact with us and hire us."

"No suspicion that they could have set traps for you?"

"We were too good to fall for their traps. Jakob and Terrace in combination were an unstoppable combat force. An _army of two_ of sorts. And where they failed, the rest of us managed to provide support. Even so, none of the contacts who did set any traps. It was all Cluster luck."

Trig flickered. Binary code started to dance in a globe around the holographic "mask" that formed the avatar. He's just got something to do. The stories ceased for a full two minutes.

"The crack-down is complete. We found them."

Philip's eye lit up.

"However, they're having a problem, and need reinforcements. Grab a rifle and get over there."

Almost immediately, a weapon rack on the wall beside the door flipped out. Philip grabbed a rifle with two extra clips and burst out running. The rifle was soon slung snugly on his back. Both extra clips were in his trouser pockets.

He stood at the top of the mountain, and could see Tremorton below. He spotted the flicker of police sirens encircling a neighborhood. Philip didn't waste any time. He ran down the hill, even tumbling.


	25. Chapter 25

-----25

Three gangs were involved in the overall situation. All three were enemies, and allies at once. The police had them all surrounded, but they had tricks up their sleeves. Cluster drones were there as well. However, Skyway Patrol and the XJ-9 were elsewhere on other duties. After all, just about all of the ARKS were there.

Drawl nodded to Philip as he ran off to return to _Time_. Orange was posted on a building, armed with sniper rifle. _High Hopes_ was perched out of harm's way. Orange was trying to pick his targets, but no shots came out.

Jakob and Terrace were both at a set of double-doors. Jessie had a plasma-based submachine gun, walking along the windows. Police armed with their own combat gear had everywhere else covered.

Terrace remained motionless, but he still acknowledged Philip's arrival. Jakob nodded, and Philip nodded back.

"Your parents are in there somewhere. We need a course of action."

"Take to the roof," Philip said, "Better vantage point, and make sure they don't see us. Have the cops pull off a distraction while we work."

Terrace nodded and rodie-ran to a Lieutenant, who was crouching behind a wall. After a brief exchange that Jakob and Philip never heard, the El-Tee nodded and moved to spread the word. Terrace beckoned the other two to follow.

---

Units 6, 7, 9, and 10 from Squadron Q were in position. The Warden remained low with a high-powered laser rifle, complete with scope. He was four blocks away, but he could not see the ARKS' own helicopter. The Captain was his spotter. Binoculars in one hand and a pulse rifle in another. He was the one to point out the low arrival.

They could have tried doing damage, but Warden was not particularily _that_ good of a shot. His sniper rifle could not pierce an entire buildings-worth of cinderblocks and still be able to nick the helicopter. The ARKS couldn't have known the duo were there, especially with their camouflage sensors turning them into chameleons on the rooftop.

It was luck that they landed the helicopter on the far end of a lower building. The higher building blocked off his view.

The Warden slowly side-crawled to a closer corner. The Captain followed. Both were perfectly prone. After hearing no commotion, the Captain slowly rose to peek over the parapet. The binoculars amplified his vision.

"Well I'll be damned," the Captain whispered.

"Who'd you spot?" Warden asked.

"Code-name Orange- their specialist sniper. He's laying very low. Would be difficult to hit."

Warden hefted his sniper rifle, made sure a shot was chambered, and slowly rose and levelled the rifle onto the parapet. He fiddled with the scope until a clear image showed Orange scanning the building across the street from his own.

Warden grinned before he pulled the trigger.

---

The fire exit was still busted. Scaffolding platforms were still there; the previous attack by the Custer from a few days ago remained half-fixed. It was good enough for the trio's purposes. Jessie remained outside, scanning the windows and watching for potential WIAs.

The building was a hollowed-out workhouse, filled with assembly lines and tall machinery on the ground floor and catwalks hanging above on cables. Terrace peeked through the fire escape, then shot back outside again.

"Four on the catwalks, patrolling. The rest are on the ground floor," Terrace said.

"Can Orange spot them? Does he have any thermal visors or anything?" Philip asked.

"Maybe. I doubt his shots can pierce the brick as it is."

"How about other kinds of sniper rifles?"

Jakob took a look as well. Two of the catwalk guards were conversing.

"All four... They're Cluster robots."

"Confirms their involvement as well. We'll need the XJ-9's help for this. She usually doesn't deal in typical "small matters" like this. Now that we have confirmed extraterrestrials, she can legitimately roll in."

A distant shot suddenly rang out.

---

Orange heard the whiz before the sound of the shot came to his audio sensors. He swore and moved out of the way in a panic. His treads whirred like a jet turbine. That's how fast he moved.

He continuously swore. Never has he experienced such an unexpected shot. Despite that, he found where the shot came from. Four buildings away. Someone was there. Someone with a spotter. No one could have seen him otherwise.

His goggles slipped on, and switched between different scopes until he settled on a magnified X-ray visor. He looked through the building to find two figures. Magnification increased, and Orange seemed to gain far more interest than he already had.

He cursed once more as he hit the button on his own radio.

---

"Damnit, it's the Warden. He's _here_!" came Orange's voiced. He seemed to take effort in trying not to panic. Both expressions on Jakob's and Terrace's faces changed from grim thinking to shock.

"How'd he dodge the sensors? A stealth craft?"

"No idea. They have camouflage sensors like Terrace. Can't see them with anything other than the X-Ray."

Philip noticed that Orange was speaking in more complete sentences. Maybe he does that when he needs to try. One hell of a sniper nearly getting hit without knowing what was coming. The Warden was better than he thought even with the story of _Solo Op Transluscent._

Jakob turned to Philip. "You got Jenny's number?"

Philip shook his head. "No phone. Lost it at paintball."

Jakob muttered something Philip did not hear. After a few seconds of thinking, Philip got a new plan. "We'll need to cause enough of a commotion that'll get the attention of her. Odd behaviour by the police would definitely do that.

Jakob nodded and climbed down to tell Jessie the plan. Philip turned to Terrace, who had his own rifle.

"Once the distraction comes up, we take shots at the four guards on the catwalks. Make two shots, and make them count," Philip said.

Terrace got to the other side of the opening. Both he and Philip got prone and poked their rifles through the door. They were effectively invisible to all but the most observant.

Soon, the collective fire started to fill the air with noise. Terrace immediately took four shots and downed all four. Philip didn't even blink before taking his own shots.

"Sorry if I stole your kills. You're too slow so far," Terrace said, crawling through the doorway, followed by a slightly shaken Philip.


	26. Chapter 26

------26

Even the clang of the robots falling on the catwalk didn't alert the other Cluster drones and gang members pointing their respective weapons everywhere. There was apparently a trade-off being done. The three gangs mentioned had grouped together with a fair load of thirty-five members. Philip spotted two figured gagged and tied to chairs. Black bags were over their heads, but Philip recognised the attire. Pinstripe shirt and jeans on his mother and the cargo trousers with some metal band shirt on his father.

Terrace didn't waste any time. He started taking shots. Philip wanted to stop, but it was already too late. Cluster Drones fell. Philip hefted his rifle and started aiming for the Cluster drones, who posed a far greater threat due to their training. The surprise attack caught them with their pants down. Four Cluster Drones kept the main doors closed. Said doors suddenly burst open, crushing the drones. The XJ-9 had arrived.

Lasers opened fire, mixed with non-lethal weaponry. The XJ-9 expertly tore apart the Cluster Drones and incapacitated the gangsters. Police rolled in donning riot gear.

Terrace and Philip ran across the catwalks and jumped down beside the kidnapped parents. Philip was reluctant at first, but then he recalled the time when Jessie threw him out of the hospital window back on Cluster Prime, armed with a typical, but effective plasma-based pistol.

Terrace's rifle was still up. Philip's was slung on his back. He slid to his parents, who were flinching and cringing throughout the chaos. Philip grabbed both chairs and started to pull them with enhanced strength. Terrace joined, and picked up his mother's chair. Philip hefted his father up as well and got into the cover of an assembly line conveyer belt.

Terrace used his rifle to shoot the hand-binding ropes off. Philip removed the black bags and gags. His mother and father were easily recognizable to him.

Apart from his hoody, steel hair, and trousers, he wasn't to them. Terrace talked into his radio.

"Jakob, lend Philip assistance. We got the hostages. I'm going to help Orange."

At that, Terrace jumped out of a painted window, the shattering glass seemed to act as a cue for the gunfire and combat to die down.

All of the gangsters were downed, but not outright killed. the Cluster bots were in pieces. They were very dead.

Piles of metal with synthesized minds. No matter how complex, the human brain will always be more advanced than the computer.

Such is the fate of machines these days. Philip started thinking about what would happen to him. He figured that such fates would inevitably be the same for humans in general. However, robots, when taken care of, can last far longer.

The police had collected all of the incapacitated humans. More vehivles were sent to transport them all. Jakob arrived to help Philip with his parents, while Jessie ran around, looking for wounded humans, or not-dead Cluster.

Mission accomplished.

---

Shots rang out, forcing Terrace into cover. He and Orange switched to a private channel so they couldn't be interrupted by others. The duo planned to lure the Warden to reveal his exact position, using the front-line soldier as a decoy.

Orange did not worry. Terrace was pretty good with flushing out snipers.

Reports rang out. Muzzle flashes were detected. Orange raised his own rifle and took aim. He fired.

---

The Warden's right shoulder was hit. Sparks flew and the hardened veteran spun before hitting the rooftop.

"Damnit, Arm systems cut off completely," the Warden said. He was right-handed, and couldn't use the sniper rifle anymore.

The Captain was not near as good a sniper as Warden was. Both swore at a low volume. The Captain helped the Warden up and they both ran low to a small stealth ship on the other side of the roof.

The Warden got in and strapped in. The Captain was about to join when gunfire erupted. Pulse rounds pinged harmlessly off of the ship's superior armor casing, but some hit the Captain. He slid off and rolled desperately back on his feet.

Terrace had his rifle raised, and he took more shots. The Captain dodged and returned with some pulse rifle fire of his own. Both got hit with their own gunfire. The Captain slumped on one knee. His left leg got punched out. Terrace's torso was torn up, and he fell back.

"Get in, Captain!" The Warden said.

The Captain jabbed his fingers into the inside and lifted himself into the ship. The cockpit windshield started to close when another sniper rifle shot came. It punched through the Captain's neck. Almost instantly, the Captain clasped a hand in the hole. Oil was bleeding out.

The Warden wasted no time. Coordinates were punched in with one hand. The swhip lifted off and blasted out into space. The XJ-9 was too busy with the situation at the factory to give chase.

Terrace twitched as systems started to fail in between seconds, glitching on and off. Severe damage had been obtained, though nothing as serious as Jakob's previous injury.

A minute later, he heard the rotors activate. Orange flew low. Jessie was onboard. She jumped off and ran to Terrace. Her healing mechanisms started their work. Terrace's twitching soon stopped as welding was done and the bleeding of oil and hydraulic fluid was halted.

"That bastard got away... Got some good shots on his Captain though. Orange too." Terrace said, stifling an oil-spitting cough.

Jessie wiped the oil from Terrace's vent-mouth. "You're going to need a clean-up once we get back to _Time_."

Terrace laughed. Jessie seemed to say in in a flirtatious way. The stereotype nurse usually acted that way from time to time. Nurses are so wonderful, as they say. Who _they_ are, Terrace doubts he'd ever find out.

Maybe Philip would know, since the stereotype first started from human stories and film.


End file.
